FAMILY TYRANNIDAE 499 



on the open perches common to birds of this family. Occasionally 

 one may fly out to capture an insect on the wing, or from a branch 

 or leaf. But rarely have I noted them active in movement. It is 

 certain that often they are not observed because of the dim light in 

 which they rest and their rather inactive habits. The voice is so 

 low that it attracts little attention. A female called pree-o rather 

 plaintively. Another varied this to tsee-a, others uttered plaintive, 

 whistled calls. 



They appear to be quite sedentary, as one banded by Horace Loftin 

 near Curundu, Canal Zone, on February 23, 1964, was recovered two 

 years later, on February 25, and again on April 1, 1966, in the same 

 area. One banded near Gamboa by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, 

 in November 1964, was caught again on October 6, 1966. 



The handsome crest normally shows merely as a line of color on 

 the back of the head, as the birds perch or fly. Barbour (Bull. Mus. 

 Comp. Zool., vol. 65, 1922, p. 216) described a display, seen in two 

 wounded birds, in which the "mouth opened wide, the great crest 

 fully expanded, and then the head was slowly waved from side to 

 side." I noted this action personally in a wing-tipped bird at the base 

 of Cerro Chucanti, eastern Province of Panama, March 15, 1950. As 

 I held the bird in my hand it spread the crest widely and threw it far 

 forward, at the same time compressing the nape feathers laterally into 

 a straight sharp edge down the back of the neck. The bird then 

 rotated the head from side to side in a swinging motion during which 

 it turned through an arc of 180°. With this the bill was opened widely, 

 and the tongue flicked, a curious and interesting performance. Dr. 

 Eisenmann has given me notes of similar displays as birds caught in 

 mist nets are handled. While this may be regarded as a threat func- 

 tion, it may be a nervous reaction or presented otherwise in normal 

 courtship display. 



Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif.. no. 34, 1960, pp. 516-533) found that 

 nest construction, incubation, and the care of the young were by the 

 female alone. While the male regularly accompanied his mate, his 

 activities were solely those of a guardian, in which he attacked in- 

 truders. Young are hatched with the skin bare, without down. 



Lawrence made the first report of the curious nest of this species 

 from notes supplied by Galbraith (Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York, 

 vol. 7, 1862, p. 329). One found by E. A. Goldman in heavy jungle 

 near Matachin, in the Chagres Valley near Gamboa (now submerged 

 in Gatun Lake), on May 6, 1911, hung pendant from a slender twig 

 of a small tree above a stream in a narrow ravine. It was formed from 



