Il8 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 2 



but on occasion run quickly along sloping branches. Flight across 

 openings is gracefully tilting, at the end in a long glide with spread 

 wings that terminates in an upward turn as they alight. While they 

 move regularly through or a little below the tree crown, they descend 

 also into the taller undergrowth, and in rastrojo may range in thickets. 

 Occasionally one drops to the ground to follow some escaping prey. 

 In stomach examination I have found caterpillars common food, often 

 hairy or spiny, occasionally of the largest size. Some of these bear 

 stinging hairs that produce acute and long-continuing pain at the 

 slightest touch on human skin, as I know too well from personal ex- 

 perience. Yet the cuckoo seems to swallow them with impunity. 

 Large orthoptera are regular prey, and they also eat a variety of 

 smaller insects, as beetles, large ants, and more rarely bees. Spiders 

 are taken also, and small lizards. 



The usual note is a loud, strongly accented, explosive sound 

 kis kivay, varied by the addition of one or two syllables. Other utter- 

 ances are clucking calls, more sonorous notes, and various others in 

 lower tone, some sharp and abrupt, and some chattering. 



On cool mornings I have seen them resting with back to the sun, 

 wings partly expanded, and tail widely spread so that the feathers 

 were well separated at the ends. 



Skutch (Wilson Bull., 1966, p. 146) describes the nest as placed 

 on a support of vines or closely growing branches. Two seen were 

 near the ground in tangles of bracken ; others in the top of an orange 

 tree, and in a clump of bamboo. The foundation of the structure was 

 a loose assembly of twigs on which green or yellowing leaves were 

 placed to form a shallow depression for the eggs. These, in two 

 instances, numbered 2 to a set, described as white "with a somewhat 

 rough and chalky surface," ellipsoidal in form. The 4 eggs measured 

 34.1-36.5x25.4-26.2 mm. The eggs become stained with brown from 

 the leaves on which they rest. Both male and female incubate. The 

 young as they hatch bear a thin growth of hairlike down. 



As the bird is one that attracts attention because of its size and 

 slender form, it is well known to country people who recognize it 

 under a number of names. One that I have heard frequently is 

 ciruelero. When I asked as to the derivation of this, it was explained 

 that the birds were often in the plum trees (Spondias), the ciruelos, 

 that grow so abundantly as living fence posts, or at random in fields 

 and on hillsides. In Los Santos it was called guaquita monte, in 

 Herrera cochipaerco, and in Veraguas puerquero. The Cuna name is 

 Kee tah, which may be the base for the name erica heard at Jaque, 



