che^rrie;: ornithology of the; Orinoco rijgion. 239 



brownish-colored, vegetable fibers interspersed with bits of grey 

 Hchens. The whole is neat and trim in appearance. The measure- 

 ments are : outside diameter at base 9.3 cm. ; height 3.5 cm. ; inside 

 diameter 5.7 cm. ; depth 2 cm. The eggs are short ovate, white 

 with a faint bufify tinge marked with a few spots and blotches of 

 chestnut brown about the larger end. They measure 21 x 16 mm. 

 and 21.25 ^ 16 mm. The female parent was collected, and dissection 

 showed that no more eggs would have been deposited. Two therefore 

 constitute a full set. 



PiTANGus suivFHURATus RUFiPENNis (Laf resuaye) . 



Saurophagus rufipennis Lafr., Rev. Zool. III. 1851. p. 471. 



Pitangus derbyanus rufipennis, Berlepsch, Ibis, 1884. p. 434 (Angos- 

 tura). 



Pitangus dcrhianus rufipennis Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 47 (Ciudad 

 Bolivar, Altagracia and Caicara, Orinoco River). 



Native name Christofue. Common throughout the savanna regions. 

 Adults have the eye seal brown; feet and bill black. 



The nesting season in the middle of the Orinoco region lasts from 

 early April until the end of June. The nests built by this species 

 are modelled on the same plan as nests of Alyiocctctcs as described, 

 but are very much larger and the materials employed are much 

 coarser. A nest, together with three eggs and the parent birds, 

 taken at Caicara, May 3rd, was about 4.57 m. from the ground. It is 

 a great, rough, ragged-looking ball of grass and weed stemsi, the 

 body of which measures about 30 cm. in diameter. There is an elip- 

 tical entrance hole on one side, the minor axis of which measures 

 about 5 cm. and the major about 9 cm. The dead grass immedi- 

 ately about the nest cavity and entrance hole is soft and fine. The 

 nest was well out toward the end of a" large horizontal limb, pressed 

 in between forks that supported it from below and on the sides. The 

 three eggs taken with this nest were slightly incubated. There is a 

 noticeable variation in size and shape. One egg is ovate, one a short 

 ovate and the other intermediate between them. They are a rich 

 cream color with seal brown specks and spots, and a lesser number of 

 underlying drab spots, grouped in an irregular zone about the larger 

 end. Measurements 26.5 x 19 ; 27.5 x 20.5 and 29.5 x 20.5 mm. 



