FAMILY CUCULIDAE 1 35 



heard daily, it is not easily seen. The whistled call, a high-pitched 

 sa-see, uttered rather slowly is a ventriloquial sound difficult to locate. 

 When one has flown to perch in shrubbery near me it has always 

 sought the shelter of a screen of leaves. Here it may sit erect with 

 tail swinging slowly from side to side for a bit, and then crouch and 

 begin to call. Even though the bird may be within 20 meters the sound 

 seems to come from a distance. The note has a hard metallic cadence 

 that in its constant repetition with the bird near at hand may become 

 disagreeable. Often they are heard calling at night even when there 

 is no moon. While I have not made detailed studies, I am certain that 

 each male by his calling maintains a territory of some extent since 

 they are heard daily in the same general areas, and in my experience 

 never with two near one another. Near Pacora on April 14, 1949, 

 Perrygo and Ratibor Hartmann reported that male and female taken 

 in company both were calling. The period of song begins in early 

 January, by the end of the month is at its height, and continues at 

 least through June. As the season advances to the period of rains 

 the birds become bolder. In Veraguas in May and June they sometimes 

 rested ort fences and telegraph wires, where they sat with raised 

 crests, and tail hanging straight down. At times the wings were partly 

 opened with the alula expanded so that its black feathers were prom- 

 inently displayed. After rain at night they may rest in the early morn- 

 ing sun on open ground. 



Their food is composed of insects taken in the shrubbery, sometimes 

 picked from the ground. Grasshoppers are a common item. 



The striped cuckoo is known to be parasitic in its nesting, and in 

 Brazil and Surinam several species of tropical ovenbirds (family Fur- 

 nariidae) are recorded as foster parents. Among these, spine-tails of 

 the genus Synallaxis are included. While birds of this group are 

 locally common in Panama, and so are available, the few reports to 

 date have indicated the rufous-and-white wren (Thryothonts rufal- 

 bus) as a victim. F. W. Loetscher, Jr., (Condor, 1952, p. 169) found 

 a young cuckoo being fed red berries by one of these wrens near 

 Boquete, in early August 1949. The parasite was nearly grown except 

 for the bill that was still small, and flew easily. Major General G. 

 Ralph Meyer in his field notes recorded a young cuckoo in the nests 

 of this wren in the Canal Zone on August 31, 1941. On the same day 

 he frightened a young bird from another nest of the wren that he was 

 certain was one of these cuckoos. 



The eggs of the striped cuckoo are recorded as varying from pale 

 blue to white. Hellebrekers (Zool. Med. Ryksm. Nat. Hist. Leiden, 



