5oS BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA — PART 2 



but as yet none have been taken. Toucanets usually range in small 

 groups of 6 to 8 that move in loose company through leafy branches 

 from the higher undergrowth to the canopy of leaves in the tree 

 crown above. Although they are forest birds they often frequent 

 the borders of clearings. Where tree cover remains in coffee fincas 

 this is attractive, and they also range through second growth when 

 this has attained moderate size. 



Their food is mainly the berries and fruits that abound in their 

 habitat, varied to some degree with insects. The feeding trees that 

 are attractive to many forest birds are visited constantly. In such 

 situations at times I have found them quite fearless. They also are 

 regular nest robbers that take eggs and young of smaller birds. On 

 one occasion at a berry tree that was attracting many of the smaller 

 birds 3 toucanets fed undisturbed in the lower branches though one 

 by one I shot half a dozen of their companions, some of which fell 

 past them close at hand. 



Their usual notes are grunting calls, often amusing in their cadence. 

 They also utter another steadily repeated single note in sound like 

 the call of the keel-billed toucan, but without carrying power, being 

 far less loud. 



Alexander Skutch (Wilson Bull., 1944, pp. 133-151; Publ. Nuttall 

 Orn. Club, no. 7, 1967, pp. 51-59) in detailed studies of this species 

 in Costa Rica recorded their nests in old holes of the larger and 

 medium-sized woodpeckers. While the toucanets used the older cavi- 

 ties of previous years, at times they also dispossessed the owners 

 when these homes had been newly completed. With species of the 

 size of the hairy woodpecker the toucanets sometimes enlarged the 

 entrance by pulling off fragments where the wood was soft. Two 

 of the 3 nests that he was able to examine held 4 white eggs each, 

 the other 3, resting on small wood fragments in the bottom of the 

 cavity. He was not able to handle these, as to do so he would have 

 had to enlarge the opening, adding to the already high probability 

 of destruction by predators. 



Male and female alternated in incubating during the day, with 

 one alone during the night. In one nest the eggs hatched in 16 days. 

 The newly emerged young were completely bare of any feathering. 

 In the succeeding period of rather slow growth of 43 days before 

 the young left the nest, one of the parents slept with them each night. 

 Though the young were fed on various fruits with large indigestible 

 pits or seeds, the parents kept the nest cavity clean. Skutch was of 



