572 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA — PART 3 



eastern Province of Panama, and at Garachine, Darien. Common 

 through the Archipielago de las Perlas (recorded on Islas Contadora, 

 Saboga, Bayoneta, Malaga, Vivienda, Rey, Canas, Santelmo, Moreno, 

 Pedro Gonzalez, and San Jose). On other islands as follows : Taboga, 

 Taboguilla, in Bahia de Panama ; Iguana, north of Punta Mala, 

 Los Santos; Gobernadora, Cebaco, Golfo de Montijo ; Coiba; 

 Afuerita, off Bahia Honda, Veraguas ; Parida, Bolaiios, Golfo de 

 Chiriqui. 



These small flycatchers usually are found in low growths of bushes 

 and small trees, ranging through open areas, and commonly also, in 

 denser stands. They range regularly in mangrove swamps in the 

 drier areas along the inner border, seldom in the heavier stands 

 over deeper water. They are seen at times also in forested sections. 

 Pairs are encountered regularly though more often individuals are 

 alone, moving so quietly through the twigs and leaves that they may 

 not be seen. Much of their food is insects, captured in such search. 

 Less often they rest on open perches, when with their twitching tails 

 they may be confused with other small flycatchers of similar color 

 pattern. They also come quietly to feeding trees to eat the drupes. 



While in general appearance, and if not seen clearly, they may be 

 confused with the Lesser Elaenia, they differ from that species in rela- 

 tively heavier, blacker bill, in addition to smaller size. Their call is a 

 somewhat sibilant swees, heard only occasionally with the birds near 

 at hand. They also have a low trilling song of little carrying power. 



The breeding season appears to come from March to June. 

 March 26, 1948, near La Palma, Los Santos, I saw one working at 

 construction of a simple open cup nest located about 6 meters from the 

 ground in the fork of a branch in a small, open-Hmbed tree. A nest 

 found by Major-General G. Ralph Meyer March 31, 1944, near 

 Chepo, was made of plant fibers placed in a tree beside the highway. 

 The two eggs, with incubation not begun, are faintly creamy white, 

 spotted finely with chestnut-brown, a few varying to lilac, all mainly 

 in a slightly indicated wreath near the larger end. They measure 

 18.7 X 13.7 and 18.9 X 14.0 mm. Another set that he collected April 11, 

 1941, near Summit, Canal Zone, from a nest made of grasses in a 

 solitary tree standing beside an unimproved road had only a trace of 

 incubation. The nest was about 75 mm in diameter, by 40 mm deep. 

 The two eggs, with the spotting somewhat more scattered, measure 

 19.4x14.4 and 19.4x14.6 mm. In both of these sets the eggs are 

 near subelliptical in shape. A third nest, collected April 19, 1944, 

 near Chepo, like the first was in a fork of a horizontal branch in a 



