COMMON PETCHARY. 179 



turning upward catches it as it falls. It some- 

 times continues this sport a quarter of an hour. 



In the winter season, the seeds of the Tropic - 

 birch (Bursera) appear to constitute a large portion 

 of the food of our Tyrannidae. One day in January, 

 I observed two Petcharies on a birch- tree, fluttering 

 in an unusual manner, and stood to watch their 

 proceedings. I found they were feeding on the 

 ripe berries, which they plucked off in a singular 

 manner. Each bird sitting on a twig, seized a 

 berry in his beak, then throwing back his head 

 till he was in a perpendicular position, tugged till 

 the stalk gave way, his wings being expanded, 

 and vibrated all the while to prevent him from 

 falling. Yet, even at this season, they contrive 

 to fill their craws with insects ; for one which I 

 dissected the next day, had its stomach filled with 

 hymenoptera and coleoptera, among which were 

 the fragments of a most brilliant little Buprestis, 

 the possession of which I envied it. I observed 

 that the stomach was protuberant below the 

 sternum, as in the cuckoos. At this early season, 

 the time of incubation was near ; for the ovary 

 of this specimen contained an egg as large as 

 a small marble ; and my lad who shot it, told 

 me that this one and its mate were toying and 

 pursuing each other around a tall manchioneel- 

 tree, on one of whose upper limbs he discovered 

 a nest nearly finished. 



The nest consists of a loose basket of dry stems 

 of yam, and tendrils of passion-flower, lined with 

 a slight cup of horse-hair and fibres from palmetto- 



