﻿VENEZUELAN ORNITHOLOGY — FRIEDMANN AND SMITH 523 



nest as early as February 2, but eggs were not found until the latter 

 half of April. One nest that appeared finished on March 2 was stUl 

 being worked on by both birds on Alarch 7, and at that date it still 

 contained no eggs. This is rather interesting when one considers the 

 nesting record of the mockingbird {Mimus gilvus melanopterus) and 

 when the much smaller size of the present bird is taken into account. 

 The nests were usually placed at less than 10-feet above ground, 

 often in the crotch of a nettle. An April nest was destroyed by a 

 pair of tanagers (Thraupis sayaca glaucocolpa) , which tore out most 

 of the top and entrance. They did not touch the young at the time, 

 but two days later the nest was empty. 



This species has a variety of simple, unmclodious songs. Some 

 may be written as follows: seeeep, chu-chu-chu; chu-weeet; chuweet; 

 and chreee, wMtzy-whitzy-whitzy repeated rapidly over and over again. 



Family PARULIDAE: Wood Warblers 



PARULA PITIAYUMI ELEGANS (Todd) 



Compsothlypis pitiayumi elegans Todd, Ann. Carnegie Mus., vol. 8, 1912, p. 204 

 (Anzodtegui, Lara, Venezuela). 



SPECIMEN COLLECTED 



IcT, Cantaura, December 2, 1945; gonads not enlarged; feathering somewhat 

 abraded. 



This race ranges from Trinidad and Tobago south across Venezuela 

 to northern BrazU. 



This little warbler was fairly common both in the dry woods around 

 Cantaura and the wet woods around Caicara, from November through 

 May. The song heard in Caicara in December may be written as 

 sip, sip, sip, sip, crrrrr, the "sips" being on the same pitch, the "crrrrr" 

 a rapidly rising note. The song was harsher than that of the North 

 American parula warbler (Parula a. americana), especially the last 

 note, which was a distinct cr, rr, r, not a smooth, rising buzz as in the 

 North American species. The present species also sang crrrrr, cheee, 

 cheee, cheee, cheee. 



DENDROICA PETECfflA AESTIVA (Gmelin) 



Motacilla aestiva Gmelin, Systema naturae, vol. 1, pt. 2, 1879, p. 996 (Canada 

 accepted as type locality) . 



SPECIMENS COLLECTED 



1 unsexed (=cf), 1 imm. cT, Cantaura, October 1 and December 29, 1947; 

 iris dark, bill and feet brownish. 



The inamature bird is almost dark enough above to be amnicola 

 Batchelder of Newfoundland but is matched by other examples of 

 aestiva of comparable season, sex, age, and wear. Birds in this 

 plumage are very unsatisfactory for subspecific identification. 



855851—50 8 



