436 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 3 



table and scolded at them, an attention that it transferred to me a 

 little later as I bathed in the stream. 



Their calls are high whistled notes, repeated rapidly, varied occa- 

 sionally to noisy, chattering sounds. Though different in cadence, in 

 high-pitched, rapid utterance they suggest the call of the Yellow- 

 rumped Attila, a species that they resemble also in mannerisms and 

 habitat. The feather coat on the body is unusually dense. I have 

 noted also that the oil gland appears rudimentary, so small, in fact, 

 that it is found only on close search. 



I have seen no account of the nest and eggs. As the birds were 

 noted occasionally examining cavities in tree trunks, they may nest in 

 holes. 



Stomachs examined held insect remains — a caterpillar, membracids, 

 beetles of several kinds, bits of moths and hymenoptera. and seeds, 

 apparently from a berry. 



ATTILA SPADICEUS (Gmelin) : Bright-rumped Attila, 

 Pajaro Griton 



Figure 40 



Muscicapa spadicca Gmelin, Syst. Nat., vol. 1, pt. 2, 1789, p. 937. (Cayenne.) 



Medium size ; brown or dull green above, with buff or yellow rump ; 

 breast streaked. 



Description. — Length 170-185 mm. Head with a slight crest; 

 rictal bristles prominent. Adult (sexes alike), crown and hindneck 

 dull grayish green or olive-green, streaked with dusky, the amount 

 varying from heavy to nearly plain ; in some mixed with grayish white 

 on forehead ; back, scapulars, and lesser wing coverts reddish brown 

 to brownish or dull grayish green ; rump and upper tail coverts from 

 light cinnamon-buff to yellow, usually more ochraceous on the upper 

 rump ; wings and primary coverts dusky to dull black, secondaries 

 and inner primaries edged with dull reddish brown; middle and 

 greater coverts dull black, edged with dull cinnamon to buffy brown ; 

 tail dull grayish brown to brownish olive, more or less cinnamomeus 

 basally ; rictal bristles black ; lores, and usually the anterior feathers 

 of the forehead, dull white to grayish white ; lower eyelid lined nar- 

 rowly with white; side of head dark like the crown, lined indistinctly 

 with dull white and dusky ; chin yellowish to grayish white ; foreneck, 

 breast, and sides grayish to yellowish, streaked heavily with dull 

 gray, with shaft lines dusky ; flanks yellowish to buff or cinnamon- 

 buff; under tail coverts buff; axillars and under wing coverts cin- 



