FAMILY TYRANNIDAE 595 



small birds. While not rare, they may be seen infrequently as they 

 move quietly, usually behind cover of leaves. At several localities 

 where one or two were captured daily in mist nets set in the forest, 

 they were seen only casually in the undergrowth. In their rather 

 rapid movement with the traveling flocks of other species, they were 

 suggestive more of a titmouse or a vireo than of a flycatcher. Their 

 usual actions were of quick searches among twigs and leaves. On 

 several occasions I found them eating berries in feeding trees. Though 

 I saw them at intervals over a period of years I did not record calls 

 that I could attribute certainly to them. Rarely, in display, one was 

 seen to thrust one wing, only slightly, if at all opened, straight up 

 above the back, and as quickly pull it back to normal resting position. 

 The display was like that of the related Ochre-bellied Flycatcher 

 Pipromorpha oleaginea. In examination of birds in the hand, the 

 dark inner lining of the mouth and tongue often attracted attention, 

 with the suggestion that the color might be for use in some display. 



There has been little reported on their breeding. Dr. Neal Smith 

 recorded a nest which resembled that of Pipromorpha, February 7, 

 1967, near Gamboa. In the related race Mionectes olivaceus vene- 

 suelensis, in Trinidad, Belcher and Smooker (Ibis, 1937, pp. 246- 

 247) recorded nests similar to those of Pipromorpha, but due ap- 

 parently to the shy habit of the owners, had difficulty in certain 

 identification. Smooker saw only two that he was satisfied belonged 

 to Mionectes. Each held three eggs, plain white, without gloss or 

 markings. The average size of the six was 18.8 X 14.3 mm. The nests 

 were described as rounded balls, externally of moss, with an entrance 

 in one side. They hung suspended "by aerial roots either from 

 rocks over the water of streams or from horizontal earth-banks held 

 together by matted roots." He described the nests that he certainly 

 identified as without the long dangling tail usual in Pipromorpha. 



Beyond Panama the race hedcraccns is recorded through western 

 Colombia to western Ecuador. 



PIPROMORPHA OLEAGINEA (Lichtenstein) : Ochre-bellied 

 Flycatcher, Moscareta Vientre Ocroso 



Muscicapa oleaginea Lichtenstein, Verz. Doubl. Zool. Mus. Kon. Univ. Berlin, 

 1823, p. 55. (Bahia, Brazil.) 



Small ; foreneck gray to grayish ; breast and abdomen buff ; greenish 

 olive above ; in some races with middle and greater coverts and secon- 

 daries edged with cinnamon-bufif. 



This is a species of Tropical Zone woodlands that is widely dis- 



