: ORNITHOLOGY OF THE) ORINOCO REGION. 32! 



Bucco tamatia tamatia Hellmayr, Novit. Zool. XVII: 1910; 391 



(Maipures). 



Rare; two were taken at Maipures, one in December and one in 

 January. The American Museum has an example collected at the same 

 place in April. 



Eye walnut brown; bill black; feet olive plumbeous. 



HYPNELUS BICINCTUS (Gould). 

 Tamatia bicinctus Gould, P. Z. S. 1836. p. 80. 

 Bucco bicinctus Berlepsch, Ibis, 1884. p. 435 (Angostura) ; Berlepsch & 



Hartert, p. 102. 



Adult male: eye straw yellow; bill black; feet plumbeous olive. 



Common. Found most commonly in the thinly wooded savanna 

 regions. 



The nesting habits of this species are somewhat extraordinary. 

 The nest is excavated by the parent bird, in one of the large nests of 

 the common termite (the white ant of the region) which form so con- 

 spicuous an object in many of the forest trees. The entrance is usually 

 placed at about the middle on one side of the termite nest ; the excava- 

 tion then passes backward and upward for nearly the entire diameter 

 of the termite dwelling, and is terminated with a slightly enlarged 

 spherical chamber about 15 cm. in diameter. The entrance tunnel is 

 about 8 cm. in diameter. No nesting- material is carried in and the 

 eggs are deposited on the debris at the bottom of the nest cavity. 



A nest found at Caicara May 6th contained a single fresh egg. 

 The parent bird remained in the nest cavity until I had cut and hacked 

 at the termite nest (which by the way is exceedingly tough and hard) 

 for some time. She must have been covered with the termites for they 

 swarmed out everywhere over the nest in countless numbers, and the 

 question uppermost in my mind was : How were the birds able to make 

 their excavation in the face of the hoards of -creeping biting termites? 

 The egg is white, slightly glossy, short ovate in shape, and measures 

 24.6 x 20 mm. 



In the American Museum collection are three examples from 

 Maripa on the Caura River. 



NONNULA DUIDAE Chapman. 



Nonnula duidac Chapman, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. XXXIIT : 1914: 

 195 (Foot Mt. Duida, Venez.). 

 The type is in the collection of the American Museum. 



