1909] Beebe: Birds of Northeastern Venezuela. 83 



cous cries or saw them almost every day, usually in small flocks 

 of four to twelve. 



(Short-tailed parrakeets were seen on several occasions, but 

 were not secured or identified.) 



Amazona ochrocephala (Gmel.). Yellow-fronted Amazon 



Parrot. 



Two birds of this species had their nest in an old dead palm 

 stub about one hundred yards out on the expanse of pitch at La 

 Brea (Fig. 26). We discovered it by accident, -the old bird 

 climbing to the entrance and peering out at us as we pushed 

 through the tangle of weeds near by. 



We returned later and secured three photographs of the 

 parrot at the entrance of the nest, before she flew screaming to 

 join her mate at the edge of the neighboring jungle. 



The dead palm stub was seven feet in height, with the en- 

 trance of the nest five feet from the ground. This entrance was 

 almost a vertical rectangle, measuring two and seven-tenths by 

 five and a half inches. The whole interior of the stub was hol- 

 low, and the nest itself was three and a half feet below the en- 

 trance, the lower part having been partly hollowed out, or at 

 least smoothed off, by the parrots. The nest consisted of nothing 

 but a soft bed of chips, and it was perfectly clean and sweet- 

 smelling. At the level of the nest the hollow measured ten inches 

 in diameter, and the nest chips were six inches above the pitch 

 ' outside. 



There were two eggs and one young bird just out of the 

 shell (Fig. 30). This nestling was thickly covered with white 

 down. When I cut through the base of the palm stub and let 

 in the warm sunlight, the young bird instantly showed symptoms 

 of distress, uttering a low, raucous cry, like the subdued mewing 

 call of a catbird. 



The eggs are dull white, in shape like diminutive hen's eggs, 

 and measure 39 x 30 and 38 x 30 mm. respectively. The egg 

 from which the young bird had hatched was broken into two 

 unequal parts, through a circle slightly nearer the blunt end. 



Amazona inornata (Salvad.). Gray-headed Amazon Parrot. 



A pair of these birds were often seen near our house at 

 Guanoco, fearlessly climbing about the pomerosa trees while we 

 watched them, and one was secured on April 9th half way to 

 La Brea at the side of the railroad track. 



