OPEN CLEARING AND SECONDGROWTII OT 



Besides these, two ])in^eons made tin's their liome, the 

 rufous and the oTey-l'ronted, feeding on the fi-uit of small 

 berry trees and huildino- their nests amon<»- the tan^'les of 

 razor-grass. The little guan or hanaqua sang its ehorus in 

 j^airs in the early morning. Rufous euekoos slipped silently 

 through the hranehes and their cousins, the smooth-hilled 

 anis or witeh-l)irds almost typify the clearing to our mem- 

 ory, so ubicjuitous and individual were they. Of the passer- 

 ine birds, the dominant forms were flycatchers and we count- 

 ed m'ne species as quite characteristic of the clearing. Three 

 were kiskadees, the great (ruiana, small-billed and the lesser. 

 Then came grey-headed kingbirds, streaked and varied fly- 

 catchers, yellow-breasted elanias, and the grey and the spot- 

 ted tody-flycatchers. Yellow warblers, apparently identical 

 with those of our northern woodlands, sang and fed in com- 

 pany with black and lesser white-shouldered tanagers, bril- 

 liant moriche and black-throated orioles. 



Lastly came a few forms of great interest, strays from 

 the jungle, which, after becoming specialized and ada])ted 

 to a wholly aboreal, scansorial life, had, during late genera- 

 tions, undergone a readaptation to a perching existence. 

 These were the brown and the vellow-throated svnallaxes 

 or spinetails, aberrant forms of the woodhewers of the jun- 

 gle. The checkbird had also long deserted the hamits of 

 its numerous antbird cousins and taken up life in the semi- 

 open. 



This completes the tale of the peculiar birds of this 

 area, a hasty review which will serve to em])hasize the radical 

 departure from the jungle types so close at hand. As to 

 their songs and courtships, their nests and eggs, their molts 

 and their personalities in general, we made a beginning, an 

 excellent beginning. In the future we hope to complete 

 these life-histories and to record all that a human being may 

 learn through keen and sympathetic observation. 



