412 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 3 



Obaldia and La Bonga, near the Colombian boundary. From Vene- 

 zuela through Colombia it is regular in occurrence west to the middle 

 Magdalena and middle Cauca valleys. Westward, there is one speci- 

 men record at Tierra Alta, Cordoba, on the middle Sinu. It appears 

 that there is an extensive area in which the bird is absent or very 

 rare as it has not been reported from the Atrato Valley, or in the 

 whole of the Department of Choco along the Pacific Coast. 



The Vermilion-crowned Flycatcher, like the preceding species, is 

 found in open areas along the banks of the larger streams, along the 

 borders of fields and pastures, and to some degree in low second- 

 growth forest and thickets (rastrojo), ranging also across broader 

 open areas where roadside wires and fences offer suitable perches. 

 It comes regularly to suburban areas and around country houses. 



The voice as a whole is more varied, part of its calls somewhat 

 more vociferous, though many are soft, somewhat sibilant and with 

 little carrying power. Skutch in his account of the life history 

 (Pac. Coast Avif. no. 34, 1960, pp. 427^46) describes a dawn-song 

 in a male, a repetition of the common notes, heard during the nesting 

 season. Soft notes of greeting are used by the pair around the nest. 

 This structure is a domed ball of soft grasses and other vegetable 

 fibers, rather large in size, with an entrance in one side near the top. 

 This may be constructed wholly anew, or may be built on an old 

 cup-shaped nest of some other small bird as a base. The entrance 

 often is an untidy opening, fringed on the outer side with straggly 

 grass heads. The location ranges from less than 2 to more than 15 

 meters above the ground, and varies from the open top of a stump 

 to a site partly hidden among the branches of a thorn tree. Often 

 one will be found close beside a wasp nest, or in a tree with stinging 

 ants living in its hollow thorns. In such close association birds and 

 insects seem to live in harmony. Frequently the nest is located over 

 water. Eggs number from two or three, rarely four in a set. The 

 nesting season extends from February through June. Four sets in 

 the U.S. National Museum collected by E. A. Goldman near Gatun, 

 Canal Zone, April 26 and May 8. 1911, include three of three eggs 

 and one of four. In form the eggs are between subelliptical and 

 oval, in color from faintly creamy white to white, spotted rather 

 finely with cinnamon to chocolate-brown (varied as usual to gray 

 or lavender where the pigment is overlaid by a film of shell deposit). 

 In most the markings are grouped at the larger end, often as a cap 

 or wreath, occasionally with the rest of the surface plain without 

 markings. Measurements are as follows : two eggs in a set of three 

 (one broken), 22.3x17.8, 22.6x16.9 mm; set of three, 21.3x16.2, 



