FAMILY TROCHILIDAE 265 



Resident. Locally common in the Tropical and Subtropical Zones on 

 the Pacific slope, and in the same zones on the Caribbean side in 

 Bocas del Toro and Code. 



These are birds of the forests where they live in the shaded under- 

 growth near the ground. In areas where they are common, as on the 

 Rio Tacarcuna in Darien, they were captured in numbers in mist nets 

 set in the undergrowth. They are common in Chiriqui to the Costa 

 Rican boundary. Eastward they are recorded in forested areas to the 

 slopes of Cerro Campana, and locally around Gatun Lake, including 

 Barro Colorado Island. It is strange, therefore, that this species 

 was not reported in that region by the early collectors. I secured 1 

 in thickets bordering the Cienaga Campana near Chico, east of 

 Pacora, my only lowland record. From Cerro Azul eastward through 

 Cerro Sapo, Cerro Pirre, the upper Rio Jaque, and the slopes of 

 Tacarcuna they are common. In Bocas del Toro I have specimens 

 from the Rio Changuena, and Monniche found them on the Holcomb 

 Trail. I secured 1 at 475 meters at Tigre on the headwaters of Rio 

 Code del Norte, in Code. Goldman took 1 on Cerro Bruja, but I did 

 not find it in the forests of the hill country at Mandinga or in the far 

 eastern San Bias. 



In feeding they seek a variety of flowers, from those of heliconias 

 to more open kinds, and also glean twigs and leaves in steady search. 

 The long tail frequently is widely spread as the bird hovers or moves, 

 when its surface appears three or four times the width of the body. 

 In February and March, apparently the onset of the nesting season, 

 several males may rest near one another on low perches in under- 

 growth a meter or so above the ground. Here they utter the steady 

 series of sharp, chirping notes that constitute their song, often with 

 partly spread tail in steady vibration. Frequently they dash in pursuit 

 of some companion that comes near. The nest is described by Skutch 

 (Auk, 1964, pp. 15-16) in Costa Rica as attached to a segment of 

 a heliconia leaf, to which the cone-shaped structure of plant fibers is 

 fastened by spider web. The female rests on the nest cup fadng the 

 pendant leaf to which it is attached, so that she must turn the head back 

 until the bill tip is almost vertical. In Chiriqui, Worth (Auk, 1942, 

 p. 367) found that the nest was suspended "at the tip of a blade of 

 a palm leaf. Its 2 eggs are dull white in color and average 17.5 X 11 

 mm." Blake (Condor, 1956, p. 386) described a nest in the Monniche 

 collection as "cone-shaped and slightly flattened on one side . . . firmly 

 attached by means of a thin network of exceedingly fine fibers to the 



