1890.I Cherrie on Costa Rican Birds. 'I ? J 



between whiles. When disturbed the birds remain quite near, 

 but are not demonstrative in their uneasiness, usually keeping 

 well concealed from view and uttering very few notes, few, if any, 

 indicative of alarm. 



From the latter part of May until the middle of July the birds 

 I observed were exceedingly shy and very quiet. June 30 I se- 

 cured the first young bird from the nest. By July 20 family par- 

 ties were very common and made noisy crowds. To approach 

 one of these parties, was to be at once taken for an evil character. 

 The parent birds would immediately grow excited trying to 

 hurry their charges along. The family parties were common 

 until about August 20, when they were more frequently seen in 

 pairs or singly until all had departed. 



The present year I have seen, compared with last year, very 

 few birds. Also the breeding commenced very much later and I 

 did not take a specimen showing signs of breeding by the swollen 

 condition of the ovaries until May 8. Not only with V. Jlavo- 

 viridis have 1 noticed the late date of breeding, but with all the 

 birds breeding in the vicinity of San Jose. This is probably 

 owing to the commencement of the rainy season being a month 

 later than last year, that is the middle of May this year, whereas 

 last year it had begun by the middle of April. Before the begin- 

 ning of the wet season vegetation is parched and dry, and insects 

 of all kinds are much less abundant. 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS FOUND AT SAN JOSE, 



COSTA RICA, WITH NOTES ON THEIR 



MIGRATION. 



BY GEORGE K. CHERRIE. 



According to Zeledon's list of the birds of Costa Rica, publish- 

 ed in Vol. I, Annales del Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, there are 

 found here 190 of the birds recognized by the A. O. U. as North 

 American. Of this number 81 are found at San Jose, as repre- 

 sented in my own collection or that of the Museo Nacional. 

 While the time I have been in Costa Rica is short, I yet feel that 



