CHERRIIC: ORNITHOLOGY OF THE ORINOCO REGION. 24I 



A female taken at Caicara May 8th had in the oviduct an egg 

 ready to be deposited. On the same date a nest from which the 

 young were just emerging was tound. It was a natural cavity in the 

 trunk of a Chaparo oak, about 3 m. up. The tree stood at the edge of 

 an open savanna. 



Megarhynchus pitangua (Linnaeus). 



Lanius pitangua L., Syst. Nat. ed. 12. I. 1766. p. 136. 

 Megarhynchus pitangua Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 48. 



Not uncommon, noted from the delta region as far up the river as 

 San Fernando de Atabapo. 



Eye Vandyke brown ; bill and feet black. 



The Juvenal plumage is similar to that of the adult, but darker 

 above, being dark olive brown, and lacking the colored concealed 

 crown patch. A young female taken just as it was leaving the nest 

 (collected at Caicara May loth) has the wing and tail quills and wing 

 and tail-coverts edged and terminally margined with rufous, the 

 feathers of the back hind neck and occiput are narrowly margined with 

 grayish buff. 



An immature female taken July loth (also at Caicara) is in what 

 is probably the post-juvenal or first winter plumage. This plumage 

 is similar to the juvenal plumage, but the back is more olive and less 

 brownish, agreeing more closely with the adult. There are no grey- 

 ish buff" tips to the feathers of the crown nor to those of the hind neck 

 and they are much less prominent than those of the back. The inner 

 secondaries are margined on the outer webs and tipped with buffy 

 white, the remaining wing quills, wing and tail-coverts and tail quills 

 are margined and tipped with pale rufous. 



A nest which the young were just leaving was collected at 

 Caicara May loth. It was placed on a horizontal limb of a Chaparo 

 oak about 3 m. up, and at a point where several radiating small 

 branches supported it on all sides. It is an open cup-shaped struc- 

 ture. The body is composed of coarse dead twigs lined with rather 

 coarse vegetable fibers and plant tendrils. Outside it measures 10 cm. 

 in depth by 16 cm. in diameter. The nest cavity is about 3.5 cm. 

 deep and 9 cm. in diameter. The structure is so loosely put together 

 that the eggs might be seen through the nest walls. 



