462 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 3 



He found the nests of this race placed from 2 to 10 meters from 

 the ground on small horizontal branches, or in a more or less upright 

 fork. They were flattened cups, built by the female, of small bits of 

 gray lichen, fibrous material, and cobweb, with a lining of fine grass. 

 The two or three eggs in a set were "dull white, with a wreath of 

 bright brown and pale lilac blotches about the thick end and a few 

 small spots of the same colors scattered over the remaining surface. 

 Two eggs measured 16.7 X 13.5 and 17.5 X 13.5 millimeters." Though 

 the males regularly fed the females while on the nest they did not 

 share in the duty of incubation. However, they were active, with 

 snapping bills, in driving out any birds that happened to perch briefly 

 in the nesting tree, even flycatchers of much larger size. Newly 

 hatched young "bore rather thick, whitish down." 



Nesting in Panama appears to be somewhat irregular. Paired birds 

 with enlarging gonads were taken from the first week in February to 

 early March. General G. Ralph IMeyer found a nest with two eggs, 

 so far advanced that they could not be saved, on Madden Road, 

 Canal Zone, June 23, 1941. Hallinan (Auk, 1924, p. 317) flushed one 

 from a nest (though apparently empty) on November 3, 1915, near 

 New Culebra, Canal Zone. 



Stomachs of those that I have examined have held remains of 

 miscellaneous small insects, which the birds take on the wing. 



CONTOPUS CINEREUS AITHALODES Wetmore 



Confopits cincrcus aithalodcs Wetmore, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 134, no. 9, 

 July 8, 1957, p. 65. (Isla Coiba, Panama.) 



Characters. — Decidedly darker, more olive that C. c. brachytarsus, 

 both above and below ; edge of wing cinnamon. 



Measurements. — Males (11 from Isla Coiba), wing 65.2-71.5 

 (68.7). tail 54.0-61.1 (57.0), culmen from base 14.8-15.9 (15.4), 

 tarsus 11.5-12.9 (11.9) mm. 



Females (9 from Isla Coiba), wing 63.2-68.4 (66.5), tail 52.8-57.9 

 (55.4), culmen from base 14.7-16.1 (15.3), tarsus 11.5-12.9 

 (12.0) mm. 



Resident. On Isla Coiba and Isla Rancheria, off the Pacific coast 

 of Veraguas. 



In addition to the series taken in 1956 from which this race was 

 described, there are four in the British Museum (Natural 

 History) collected by H. J. Kelsall on the St. George Expedition 

 August 31 to September 4, 1924. Dr. Eisenmann and E. S. Morton 



