322 Cherrie, Lint of Birds of San Josp, Costa Rica. [October 



A PRELIMINARY LIST OF THE BIRDS OF SAN 

 • JOSE, COSTA RICA. 



BY GEORGE K. CHERRIE. 



(^Concluded from p. 2^1 J) 



94. Milvulus tirannus. — At a slis^htly lower altitude it nests abun- 

 dantly. A nest with three fresh eggs taken bj Don Anastasio Alfaro at 

 Tambor, Alajuela, May 2, 1889, was placed in a small tree, about ten feet 

 from the ground. Tlie parent bird left the nest only very reluctantly and not 

 until almost within the grasp of the collector. The nest is constructed of 

 a mixture of small dry grass and weed stems and soft dry grass rather 

 compactly woven together, with a lining of a few fine rootlets. It meas- 

 ures outside 5 inches in diameter by 2% deep, inside 25 in diameter by z\ 

 deep. The eggs are white, sparsely spotted and blotched, chiefly about 

 the larger end, with chestnut of slightly varying shades. In form the 

 eggs are ovate, and they" measure .66 X .88, .65 X 88. and .63 X .89 inch. 



95. Tityra personata. — From time to time found about San Jose, its 

 presence or absence being due to the ripening of certain fruits. My ob- 

 servations have been that the bird feeds chiefly on fruits. The species is 

 found on both coasts, and in the interior up to an altitude of 6000 feet. 



Young males resemble the females. 



Mj' observations are at variance with those of Mr. Salmon, in regard to 

 the color of the q^^, being white, as given by Salvin and Godman in their 

 'Biologia Centrali-Americana.' March 22, 1892, I found a nest of this 

 species at Terraba (southwestern Costa Rica), containing one egg; the 

 bird was shot and a second egg badly broken removed from the oviduct. 

 In these the ground color is a dark pinkish buff"; the ground color is 

 almost completely hidden by irregular markings, lines, and blotches, of 

 chestnut brown, these blotches darkest and most abundant about the larger 

 end. The eggs measure 1.16 X .83 inch. The nest was probably a de- 

 serted Woodpecker hole, and was situated about six feet from the ground 

 in nn old stump. The bottom of the nest was about ten inches below the 

 opening. It was without any lining whatever. However, I saw a second 

 pair of birds carrying nesting material into a hole in another tree. 



96. Chiroxiphia linearis.-— A rare straggler at San Jose. Tolerablv com- 

 mon on the Pacific slope c'lear to the coast. Young birds resemble the 

 adult female. 



97. Momotus lessoni. — Common resident. The nests are built in the 

 ground, some bank, like the side of a stream, being selected. The entrance 

 tunnel extends back horizontally soinetimes for a distance of six feet. 

 At about half its length there is a sharp bend upward for some six inches, 

 then the course is again horizontal as far as the chamber occupied by the 

 nest. The nest space is twelve or fourteen inches in diameter, being 

 round, and about six inches high with level floor and ceiling. A few 



