FAMILY TYRANNIDAE 521 



While not abundant, these interesting small flycatchers are widely 

 distributed so that they are seen regularly, usually in pairs. In lowland 

 Qiiriqui they are found from the Costa Rican boundary and the 

 Burica Peninsula eastward through San FeHx and Las Lajas to Vera- 

 guas and southern Code. In the Azuero Peninsula they were not 

 encountered on the western side, but on the east ranged through 

 Herrera to northern Los Santos (to Monagre on the coast south of the 

 mouth of the Rio de la Villa). Their eastern limit beyond the Canal 

 Zone came at the lower Rio Bayano (San Antonio beyond Chepo). 

 On the Caribbean coast I recorded them in western San Bias at 

 Mandinga and the mouth of the Rio Cangandi. As Hasso von Wedel 

 collected specimens at Puerto Obaldia it appears that they are dis- 

 tributed throughout this area. In Darien, E. A. Goldman collected a 

 male near Cana on Cerro Pirre March 22, 1912, noting that the birds 

 were found "sparingly in the second growth jungle." Benson secured 

 two males there in 1928. Eisenmann has given me records of one from 

 Boca de Cupe at the head of tidewater on the Rio Tuira. 



Usually they are seen moving alertly through open branches, often 

 fluttering up among leaves to seize moving insects. More rarely, one 

 may rest motionless, often on an elevated perch, for several minutes. 

 The males especially, as they move about, raise the long tail above the 

 level of the back, often spread it slightly, and jerk it quickly from 

 side to side. In their active movements they are suggestive of gnat- 

 catchers or wrens, rather than their more subdued relatives among 

 the Tyrant Flycatchers. As they move about they call with sharp 

 chipping notes, or with a very short musical trilling song. All of these 

 sounds are low with slight carrying power. From numerous stomach 

 examinations I have found their food to be small insects of a con- 

 siderable variety, including many hymenoptera, diptera, beetles, and 

 hemiptera. Occasionally one had eaten a small caterpillar, or a small 

 moth. 



The nest is large for the size of the bird, placed usually with no 

 pretense of concealment. In a usual location, the structure swings 

 from the tip of a hanging twig or vine, sometimes at the side of a 

 thicket, occasionally over a trail, or above a small stream at elevations 

 as low as a meter or two, or higher up to 8 or 9 meters from the 

 ground. It is built by male and female working together, the construc- 

 tion proceeding slowly, often through a period of two weeks to a 

 month. Long fibers are twisted around the supporting twig so that 

 they dangle in a tangled mass. As this grows in size, the birds press 

 other fibers into one side to form an opening, and then continue 



