82 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 134 
Family CycLarHIpAE: Pepper-Shrikes 
CYCLARHIS GUJANENSIS COIBAE Hartert: Yellow-breasted Pepper-shrike, 
PAdjaro Perico 
Cyclorhis coibae Hartert, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 12, Dec. 30, 1901, p. 33. 
(Coiba Island, Panama.) 
The pepper-shrike was fairly common but on my arrival at the 
beginning of the dry season their songs had become infrequent, and 
without these notes as a guide they are difficult to find. While they 
are robust in body, they move about behind leafy cover in such 
leisurely manner, resting for minutes with only slight movements of 
Fic. 12.—Yellow-breasted Pepper-shrike, Pajaro Perico. 
the head, that it is only casually that one is seen. They are birds of 
the high forest crown, but come also about clearings, even into the 
low second growth called rastrojo, or to the borders of mangrove 
swamps. At the Maria work camp I found one feeding in mango 
trees and cocoanut palms standing isolated in the extensive clearing. 
The song is loud with strongly accented notes, and ends abruptly, 
when there is a pause of varying length, often of several minutes, 
before it is repeated. The first two or three syllables are uttered 
rather slowly, followed by a rapidly given louder phrase. The notes 
carry for several hundred yards, and, if the song is continued, 
eventually the bird may be located, though the process of finding one 
may require half an hour. The three males that I collected represent 
many hours of search, since, as already stated, during January the 
birds were not singing steadily. 
