CHERRIE: ORNITHOLOGY OF THE ORINOCO REGION. 279 



between horizontal forks of a limb of a tree known as Cafia-fistola; it was 

 about 1.52 m. from the ground and just above a thicket of thorny vines 

 that would have effectually protected it from most predatory animals. 

 In the materials employed, and in shape it is similar to the nest described 

 above and just as loosely and openly woven. The greatest diameter of 

 the nest cavity is just below the edge which is contracted on the two 

 sides by the branches of the fork and at the outer edge, between the 

 forks, by the drawing in of the nest wall, a condition which would have 

 prevented the eggs being thrown out had the branch swayed about a 

 great deal. 



Of the two young taken with this nest, a male and a female, the 

 latter was considerably the larger and must have been a couple of days 

 the older. Ordinarily where there is any decided difference in the 

 plumages of adults, the young in Juvenal plumage will bear a greater 

 resemblance to the female than to the male. In the specimens before 

 me the pattern of coloration is that of the male in both the male andi 

 the female. The general color above is tawny ochraceous, inclined to 

 russet on the crown, rather broadly barred with blackish or dusky black ; 

 in short, they differ from the adult male chiefly in the lack of a length- 

 ened crest and in the replacing of the white by ochraceous. Below, they 

 are a pale ochraceous buff, that fades into almost pure white on the 

 abdomen, narrowly barred with dusky on the breast and sides, dark- 

 est on the upper breast, faintly showing on the flanks and entirely absent 

 on the abdomen. 



PYGIPTILA STELLARIS (Spix). 



Thamnophilus stellaris Spix, Av. Bras. II. 1825. p. 27, PI. 36, fig. 2. 

 Pygiptila maculipenni's Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 71 (Munduapo, Neri- 



cagua, Orinoco River), in part. 

 Pygiptila stellaris Hellmayr, Novit. Zool. XII. 1906. p. 367. 



Noted only on the upper river, above the second falls, where it was 

 not uncommon at Munduapo and Nericagua. Berlepsch and Hartert 

 also record it from La Union and La Pricion on the Caura River. 



There are two specimens in the American Museum collection col- 

 lected by Klages at La Union on the Caura River, Venezuela, that 

 I am unable to identify with certainty. They may or may not belong to 

 the same species ; I am, however, strongly of the opinion that they repre- 

 sent distinct forms. They have both been marked as males by the col- 

 lector, in one case, however, with a question. Below I give a brief de- 

 scription of each of the specimens. 



