iSSS.] Goss on Gymiiostiiiops inontezumce. 2 7 



six inches, was rippling and dashing over the rocks, a natural 

 feeding ground for the fishes. The birds, after first bathing and 

 dressing their feathers, giving particular attention to their pri- 

 maries, without any unity of action, as hunger moved them, 

 floated down over the rapids, picking up the fishes here and there, 

 until the still water below was reached, when they would rise 

 and fly back, to float down again, leisurely repeating this mode 

 of fishing until it was quite dark. 



NOTES ON GTMNOSTINOPS MONTE ZUM^^. 



BY N. S. GOSS. 



The birds are known by the natives as the 'Oropendula,' also as 

 the 'Inca Bird,' but are generally called 'Yellow-tailed Cassiques,' 

 or rather 'Yellow-tails.' They are quite common in the low 

 forest lands of Central America, upon the Atlantic side, but I 

 did not find them on the Pacific slope, nor upon the high 

 mountain lands. They are social in their habits, going in cou- 

 ples, and generally in flocks of from ten to fifty or more. They 

 are noisy ; their voice is harsh, coarse, and discordant, an inde- 

 scribable jargon ; even their whistling notes are not musical. In 

 their food habits they are omnivorous, but seem to prefer fruits 

 and berries, often doing great damage on the plantations when 

 the bananas, plantains and mangos are ripening. For breeding- 

 purposes they select large thorny trees in an open space where 

 the limbs of other trees do not touch, so as to be beyond the 

 reach of reptiles, monkeys, raccoons, and other climbing nest 

 robbers. 



Their pendulous, gourd-shaped nests, which are suspended to 

 the ends of the boughs of the tallest branches, are strongly and in- 

 geniously woven of fibrous strippings from plants and frond-like 

 leaves, with here and there a rootlet ; the bottoms are lined with 

 leaves. Some writers state that the birds build their nests of 

 grasses, but 1 have been unable to find any in those that I have 

 examined, and I am inclined to think this large species rarely, 



