FAMILY TYRANNIDAE 421 



the larger rivers and the l)orders of mangrove swamps. On the 

 Caribbean coast at Mandinga, San Bias, three came from the cover 

 of mangroves to a pool of fresh water where they drank and bathed, 

 and then returned to the salt environment of the swamp. Bushes 

 and low trees standing in shallow freshwater marshes are a common 

 haunt. Normally they rest on perches near or over the water, and 

 seldom rise to high commanding posts. In this, and in their softer 

 notes, they differ completely from the larger Kiskadee, which they 

 resemble so closely in color and in pattern of markings. Usually 

 they are found in pairs, resting near one another. Usually also they 

 are tame and are attracted easily by squeaking sounds, when they 

 come near with low, wheezy calls of no great carrying power. These 

 are plaintive chattering sounds, pree-ee-ee-pree-a, or zvhee-ee-ee 

 whee-o, in which the first notes are uttered slowly, drawled and 

 lengthened, the latter calls more quickly. Around larger bodies of 

 water they range in the open to bushes and low trees over grassy areas. 



The nest of this species was first described by the Penards 

 (Vogels van Guyana, vol. 2, 1910, p. 246) as bowl shaped and rather 

 flat, made of grass and leaves. This was verified by Haverschmidt 

 (Auk, 1957, pp. 240-241). As this differs completely from the 

 rounded, covered globe with the entrance near the top at one side 

 of the Great Kiskadee, the identification was questioned by some, 

 more recently by T. A. W. Davis (Auk, 1961, pp. 276-277). Verifi- 

 cation of the earlier account came immediately from Haverschmidt 

 (Auk, 1961, pp. 277-278), from W. John Smith (Auk, 1962, pp. 

 108-111), and from E. O. Willis (idem, p. 111). At the Barro 

 Colorado Island laboratory I have examined a nest collected by 

 Willis on the island shore on August 13, 1962. This nest was lo- 

 cated amid grasses above the top of a stump standing in water. It 

 was of open construction of fibrous vegetation on a base of coarse 

 stems and bits of vine. The cup was approximately 75 mm in diameter 

 by 40 mm deep, very small, even for so slender a bird. 



Hellebrekers (Zool. Med. Rijksm. Nat. Hist. Leiden, vol. 24, 

 1942, p. 260) described the long series of eggs of the nominate race 

 Pitangus lictor lictor in the Penard collection from Surinam as 

 broadly oval to spherical in form, without gloss, whitish to yellowish 

 cream in color, marked heavily with dark purplish brown, reddish 

 brown, to nearly black, mainly on the larger end, in some forming 

 a ring or cap. Size ranged from 18.7 X 16 and 19.8 X 14.3 to 20.7 X 16.0 

 and 22.0 X 17.2 mm, with 20.7 X 16.0 mm as the average of 50 speci- 

 mens. 



