FAMILY TROCHILIDAE 259 



In the eastern half of Panama the hairy hermit is one of the com- 

 mon hummingbirds in the lowlands. On the Caribbean slope it is 

 found west to the valley of the Rio Indio, and probably extends around 

 the shores of Gatun Lake, as it is found on Barro Colorado Island. I 

 encountered it also above Madden Lake on the Rio Boqueron and the 

 Rio Pequeni. Beyond the eastern boundary of the Republic it ranges 

 through much of Colombia and western Venezuela, and extends south 

 to eastern Ecuador and Peru. 



The hairy hermit usually lives alone, low near the ground in forest 

 and second growth, rarely among higher branches. When perched 

 the bird often vibrates the tail, partly spread to show the white tip and 

 basal colors. The general resemblance to the long-tailed hermits in 

 form of bill and action is close, especially when the end of the tail is 

 not visible. As I have moved through undergrowth they have come 

 regularly to peer and hover before me, attracted often by the round 

 openings in the end of the barrels of my gun. They range commonly 

 in banana plantations, and in thickets of false banana. Most of their 

 feeding is by gleaning the branches of small shrubs, and the flowers of 

 Heliconia. Stomachs that I have examined have held spiders, with 

 fragments of diptera, and other small insects. 



In the Canal Zone this hummingbird is recorded as breeding from 

 the end of April to late July. Nests attached to the underside of leaves 

 of palms are found regularly in the abundant smaller kinds armed 

 heavily with spines, that grow in close groups amid the dark under- 

 growth of heavy forest. A nest collected by E. A. Goldman near 

 Gatun on May 2, 1911, hung perpendicularly from the underside of a 

 single leaflet. His notes describe the structure as "composed of hair- 

 like vegetable fibers, with a few leaf fragments and small lichens 

 interwoven, the lining being of hairlike material." The nest measured 

 about 250 mm. long by 50 mm. in diameter, with the cavity for the 

 eggs 40 mm. broad by 20 mm. deep. The 2 eggs are long subelliptical, 

 but with both ends bluntly rounded. They measure 15.3x8.9 and 

 15.8x9.0 mm. Notes given to me by Major General G. Ralph Meyer 

 describe several nests, one with 2 fresh eggs, found in the Forest 

 Reserve on Madden Road, July 20 and 23, 1941. These were made of a 

 coarse fiber, with some of the strands brought around the leaf and 

 secured there with spider web. The structure was firm, but so loosely 

 woven that the outline of the eggs was visible from the side or from 

 below. The outer rim was constricted so that the external diameter of 

 the opening was less than that within the cavity. A mass of lichens 

 and bits of leaf was secured to the palm leaf above, and a similar mass 



