FAMILY TYRANNIDAE 577 



leaves, and more evidently the berries of epiphytes and the smaller 

 fruits that attract birds to feeding trees. These berries often form the 

 major bulk in the contents of the stomach. 



Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif., no. 34, 1960, pp. 465-474) in his de- 

 tailed account of their life history, as seen in Costa Rica, described 

 the call notes as "varied but low" with a "slight, weak dawn song . . . 

 which is delivered persistently in the morning twilight." The nest is 

 made of mosses and other soft materials placed among epiphytes, in 

 the shelter of a curled leaf, amid vines and small branches, or even 

 in an old abandoned hanging nest of another flycatcher. It is built 

 by the female, who also incubates alone. The eggs, two in a set, are 

 "dull white, speckled or blotched with shades of cinnamon ranging 

 from pale to rufous-cinnamon." His measurements of a small series 

 of eggs had a range of 16.7-18.7x12.7-13.5 mm. The nestling at 

 hatching had "on its crown, back, and sides long gray down which 

 is rather dense for a passerine bird. ... Its bill, the interior of its 

 mouth, its legs, and its toes are intensely yellow." 



Under present understanding, the subspecies parvus ranges north 

 in Central America through Costa Rica and Nicaragua to Honduras. 

 To the south it is recognized in northern Choco in northwestern 

 Colombia. From present data it is rare in eastern Darien and not 

 known from San Bias. The few seen from eastern Panama appear 

 to be slightly smaller and faintly darker green above than those from 

 the Canal Zone westward. 



The type material in the American Museum of Natural History 

 includes the two specimens, male and female, covered in the original 

 description in the Ibis, where the title of the paper reads, "Descrip- 

 tions of Six New Species of Birds from the Isthmus of Panama." 

 The label of the male (A.M.N.H. 42574) reads in part, "Coll. G.N.L. 

 Type." On the reverse is the name "Tyranniscus parvus Lawr. (^, 

 Panama, McL. & G." 



The label of the other (A.M.N.H. 42575) is marked "Coll. of 

 G.N.L. Type Tyranniscus sp. nov. parvus." On the reverse, in addi- 

 tion to the name, is the notation "5, Panama McL. & G." As Lawrence 

 (Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York, 1862. p. 316) states relative to 

 the collections made by McLeannan with the aid of John R. Galbraith 

 that all "are from the Atlantic slope" with the exception of six listed 

 by number which came from the other side, this establishes the general 

 area. From this the citation of the type locaHty as "Lion Hill" by 

 Ridgway (U.S. Nat. Mus., Bull. 50, pt. 4, 1907, p. 409) may be 

 accepted as valid. 



