l8o BROOKLYN INSTITUTE MUSEUM. SCIENCE BULLETIN 2. 6. 



TACHYPHONUS RUFUS (Boddaert). 

 Tanagra rufa Bodd., Tabl. PI. Enl. 1783. p. 44. 

 Tachyphonus rufus Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 21. 



Not uncommon, but usually a shy bird; found both in the open 

 thinly timbered borders of the savannas, and in densely timbered 

 regions. 



The eye is seal brown; maxilla black, mandible plumbeous with 

 a blackish tip; feet black. 



A female, apparently adult, taken June loth has a number of 

 black feathers on the right side of the face, neck and breast. 



The nesting season extends from March to May. Nests are 

 usually from 0.6 to 1.5 m. from the ground, placed in clumps of low 

 trees or bushes in the sparsely wooded savanna regions. Two eggs 

 constitute a full set. 



A nest with two slightly incubated eggs was taken at Caicara 

 April 7th, 1907. It was only about 60 cm. from the ground in a 

 clump of thorny palm stems. Outwardly, the nest is composed of 

 coarse, short pieces and strips of soft inner bark from the rotting 

 stubs of some nearby trees, short strips torn from dead banana leaves, 

 and a few weed stems. Inside there is a thin lining of plant tendrils 

 and fine, black horse-hair-like vegetable fibers. The nest measures : 

 outside, 14 cm. in diameter by 7 cm. in depth; inside, 7 cm. diameter 

 by 4.5 cm. in depth. 1 The eggs are ovate in form, and measure 17.25 x 

 22.25 an d 17 x 22.25 mm - respectively. One is white with a faint greyish 

 wash, the other has a mere suggestion of rufous in the ground color. 

 The markings are comparatively few, scattered chiefly about the larger 

 end, and consist of irregularly rounded spots and dots of dark clove 

 brown overlying similar spots of pale lavender. Many of the larger 

 clove brown spots are surrounded by rufous as though the color had 

 spread or "washed." 



In the American Museum collection is a male collected by Klages 

 at Ciudad Bolivar that is just finishing the moult assuming the black 

 plumage of the adult, but shows a few brown feathers scattered 

 through the plumage ; one outer rectrix is black at the base and brown 

 at the tip. 



1 A. nest of this species taken on the heights of Aripo, Trinidad, March 24, 1907, has been already 

 described by the writer (Sci. Bull. I. p. 359). Only one of the eggs of the set contained in that nest was 

 saved; that is ovate in form and measures 24.5 x 18.5 mm. It is white with a faint russet wash, marked 

 with a few irregular spots and small dots of a blackish clove brown; there are also indications of a few 

 underlying lavender markings. 



