FAMILY TYRANNIDAE 399 



note without great carrying power. When excited at approach to 

 their nests, they become loud and noisy. (Though several authors 

 have rendered the call in English terms, personally I have found 

 these insufficiently suggestive to recall to mind the actual sounds.) 

 Morning and evening, males join the notes in a steadily repeated song, 

 a quiet efifort. pleasing to hear. 



The nest usually is in a hollow in a tree trunk, often the old 

 nesting hole of a woodpecker. They may also place a nest in the bases 

 of the huge leaf stems of palms, while some select the shelter of 

 masses of bromeliads growing on tree trunks. On Barro Colorado 

 Island, Eisenmann (Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 117, no. 5, 1952, 

 p. 40) records that in several years they placed nests in a partly 

 protected angle on a metal roof. Other pairs have attempted to use 

 window ledges as sites where, when the nest material was blown away, 

 they have occupied a small box specially placed for them. 



The nest is a bulky accumulation of twigs, rootlets, and similar 

 materials, with a central open cup for the eggs. Where the birds 

 occupy an old woodpecker hole, the cavity often is filled completely 

 so that the female during incubation looks out the entrance hole. 

 The female alone builds the nest, though accompanied regularly by 

 the male, and also incubates alone. The male joins in feeding the 

 young. Three is the normal set of eggs, in color whitish or cream- 

 white, heavily marked overall with reddish brown, often in a circlet 

 around the larger end. Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif. no. 34. 1960, 

 p. 381) gives the sizes in one set on Barro Colorado Island as 27.0 X 

 18.3. 27.8x18.3, and 28.2x19.1 mm. A. O. Gross (Wilson Bull., 

 1950, p. 189) lists the dimensions of three also on Barro Colorado 

 Island as 22.8x18.9. 23.0x19.1, and 24.2x19.5 mm. R. Kreuger 

 (Oologists' Rec, vol. 43, 1969, p. 27) records the size of two eggs 

 from Costa Rica as 26.6x17.8 and 27.7x18.1 mm, and in addition 

 to the brown spotting says that some "lilac-grey markings exist." 



These flycatchers take the usual variety of insects as food, and 

 also kill and eat small lizards. In addition they are regular visitors to 

 the feeding trees whose ripening berries are attractive to so many 

 birds. Such vegetable matter appears to be a considerable item in 

 their food. Stomachs that I have examined usually have held insect 

 remains of hemiptera. cicadas, beetles, and caterpillars, all species 

 of medium size, and in addition, seeds from berries. 



In Costa Rica, Slud (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 128, 1964, 

 p. 245) recorded this race as resident. Skutch (cit. supra, pp. 374— 

 376, 383) however, reports that in western Costa Rica it is migratory. 



