FAMILY TROCHILIDAE 275 



Rio Camaron. I have 1 from near Pacora, and have found it also near 

 Chepo. 



In Bocas del Toro in 1958 these hummers ranged around Almirante 

 Bay. In 1952 they were fairly common along the Rio Indio at El 

 Uracillo in northern Code, and lower down along this stream in 

 western Colon. Though not abundant, they are seen regularly in the 

 lower Chagres Valley in the Canal Zone. 



Skutch (Ibis, 1951, pp. 180-195) has given an interesting account 

 of this race in the humid forests of Costa Rica, where it is more 

 common. Males assemble in scattered groups, each on a favored low 

 perch, in forest undergrowth. Here they sing a series of notes in 

 varying tempo, with more spirit than is heard in the monotonous repe- 

 titions of the larger species of the genus. As they call the birds elevate 

 the bill and vibrate the tail so that the white tip describes an arc of 

 varying length. Nests, built by the female alone, from 1 to 2 meters 

 above the ground, are fastened to the underside of drooping leaves 

 of the low spiny-trunked palms abundant in the forest undergrowth. 

 They are built of a variety of fine fibrous materials and downs, mixed 

 with bits of leaf and moss, bound with cobweb that also fastens them 

 to the leaf support. Nest material and additional web may be added 

 during the period of incubation. Two tiny white eggs in 1 set each 

 measured 11.5x7.1 mm., and 2 in another nest each 11.9x7.9 mm. 

 In Costa Rica there appear to be two nesting periods, one from the 

 beginning of the rainy season in April to August, and another toward 

 the end of the wet season in November to the beginning of the dry sea- 

 son in January. Incubating females rest invariably with breast toward 

 the supporting leaf, which requires that the head be thrown back and 

 the bill pointed upward. 



The food of nectar and small insects is taken from flowers. Where 

 blossoms have long, narrow corollas in which the curved bill cannot 

 penetrate the birds may pierce the lower end of the tube and thus 

 reach the nectar. 



PHAETHORNIS LONGUEMAREUS SUBRUFESCENS Chapman 



Phaethornis striigularis subrufescens Chapman, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 



vol. 36, 1917, p. 283. (Barbacoas, Narifio, Colombia.) 

 Phaethornis adolphi fraterculus Nelson, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 60, 



September 27, 1912, no. 3, p. 9. (Cana, Darien, Panama.) 

 Phaethornis adolphi nelsoni Bangs and Barbour, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 



vol. 65, September 1922, p. 204. (New name for P. a. fraterculus Nelson, 1912, 



preoccupied by Phaethornis fraterculus Gould, 1861.) 



