32 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 2 



of the Rio Grande as far inland as El Potrero. And in southern Los 

 Santos I recorded them below Pedasi along the lower Rio Caldera, 

 and in the open valley at Tonosi. They were common also in the pas- 

 tures below El Llano, but here must have spread from the natural 

 savannas near Chepo, as the area that they inhabit, now level and 

 open, originally had been covered with heavy forest. 



Their food is small seeds. One taken at Corozal, Canal Zone, June 

 15, 1911, had eaten nearly 300 seeds of the grass Sporobolus indicus, 

 with fragments of a few other kinds. 



One call of the male resembles the syllables co zvay, co way, uttered 

 rapidly and repeatedly. Another is a low zvoo-ah woo-ah woo-ah. 

 While the tone is similar to that of its larger cousin the form of the 

 syllables is different. Males display by sailing out from low perches 

 for short distances with stiffly spread wings. 



Nests may be placed on the ground or in bushes, more rarely in low 

 trees. A brief manuscript note by E. A. Goldman mentions a nest 

 found June 20, 1911, on the ground near Corozal, that was made of 

 grass "interwoven to form a low platform." It held a young bird 

 recently hatched. A broken egg lay outside. The female stood over 

 the young bird and allowed the observer almost to touch her before 

 she fluttered off as though crippled. Major General G. Ralph Meyer 

 gave me a set of 2 eggs taken at Summit, Canal Zone, on June 22, 1941, 

 from a nest platform of twigs placed at a slight elevation above the 

 ground, on a horizontal branch of a grapefruit tree. The 2 eggs, partly 

 incubated, white with a faint gloss, and between elliptical and subellip- 

 tical in form, measure 19.8 X 15.5 and 21. Ox 15.6 mm. A nest, from 

 which I flushed an adult bird, on the small savanna at Ana Luz near 

 the Rio Bayano, below Chepo, April 16, 1949, was merely a slight de- 

 pression in the top of a low grass tussock, lined with bits of grass stem 

 and a few feathers. The 2 fresh eggs, in color and form like the 2 

 listed previously, measure 19.4 X 14.8 and 19.5x15.1 mm. On March 

 24, 1961, at La Jagua Hunting Club I found a female on a nest 3 

 meters from the ground in the outer branches of a cashew tree. The 

 male perched nearby. The flimsy platform of dried grass stems was 

 130 mm. across, with a slight central depression 70 mm. in diameter. 

 The single fresh egg, like the others described, measures 20.7 X 

 15.1 mm. (The measurements of 1.08X.64 inches, or 27x16 mm. 

 given by Hallinan, Auk, 1924, p. 310, for an egg from a nest found 

 near Gatun May 26, 1909, are too large for this species.) 



