FAMILY TYRANNIDAE 4O5 



associated more closely with others of their kind only when attracted 

 to feeding trees, or when they are accompanied by their young. These, 

 when grown, may remain with the parents for a time so that four or 

 five may range together. 



A usual call is a rather loud single note that may be repeated 

 quickly. A chattering repetition with fainter sound, often in a 

 querulous or complaining cadence, has less carrying power. Occa- 

 sional more forceful calls in rapid sequence may be suggestive of the 

 rattling of a kingfisher. Skutch (Auk, 1951, pp. 32-33) describes 

 a repetition by the male of the more musical notes as a dawn-song 

 given before sunrise at the beginning of the nesting season. In this 

 the bird rests high in a tree at the forest border or in the open. 



The nest, built by the female, has a foundation of twigs broken 

 from dead branches, with rootlets and other parts of epiphytes picked 

 from the trunks of trees. With these the bird forms an open, shallow 

 cup, lined with finer materials. While this may be placed as low as 

 6 meters from the ground, usually it is much higher, up to 30 meters. 

 Males may accompany the females during nest-building and even 

 carry a bit of the material, but this is dropped or held, and is not 

 offered to the builder. The eggs, two or three in number, are de- 

 scribed by Skutch (idem, p. 38) as "whitish, thickly speckled with 

 brown and pale lilac . . . most densely on the large end." A set of 

 two eggs (originally three but one broken and discarded) of M. p. 

 mexicanus collected by Charles W. Richmond on the Rio Escondido, 

 above Bluefields. Nicaragua, have the ground color very pale buffy 

 white. One is heavily, the other sparingly, covered rather uniformly 

 with dots and small- to medium-size lines and irregularly shaped 

 markings of cinnamon-rufous and bluish gray. They measure 29.9 X 

 20.8 and 29.6x20.8 mm. A single egg, received from Dr. Pedro 

 Galindo, collected at Almirante, Bocas del Toro, March 29, 1962, is 

 oval in form, very pale bufify white, sparingly dotted with gray and 

 dark brownish black. The size is 31.4x21.9 mm. Belcher and 

 Smooker (Ibis. 1937, p. 233) give measurements of a set of three 

 of the nominate race, -1/. p. pitangua, from Trinidad as 29.5x21.5, 

 29.5x21.5, and 30.0x21.5 mm. 



The female incubates alone, with the male nearby. When she is 

 away from the nest he remains to watch and guard the eggs or 

 nestlings. The young do not leave the nest until at 24 days of age 

 they are able to fly. As stated above, they may continue in the com- 

 pany of the parents until the onset of the next breeding season. Pairs 

 that lose their eggs or young also remain together. 



