1909] Beebe: Birds of Northeastern Venezuela. 95 



as I observed them feeding and from the contents of the stom- 

 achs of several, consisted wholly of small insects. They were 

 nesting at this season. 



Family TYRANNIDAE. 



Fluvicola pica (Bodd.). White-shouldered GROUND 

 Flycatcher. 



The habits of these dainty little black and white terrestrial 

 flycatchers came as a surprise to our northern ideas of the mem- 

 bers of the family Tyrannidae. They were wholly terrestrial 

 and of the twenty or thirty observed, we never saw one perch in 

 a shrub or bush. They were very common on the lake at La 

 Brea, running swiftly over the black pitch against which their 

 white-cap, shoulders and underparts stood out in sharp contrast. 

 They were tame and confiding and if we sat still for a few 

 moments, the birds would come fearlessly within eight or ten 

 feet. Their occupation was the pursuit of small insects, which 

 they secured by swift running spurts or short flights, uttering 

 a sharp, chirping cry as they flew. While scurrying swiftly over 

 pitch and fallen logs these flycatchers wagged their tails contin- 

 ually, like water-thrushes, and from time to time uttered low, 

 soft chirps. The simile was heightened by their preference for 

 water, and true to their generic name they seldom carried on 

 their insect hunting more than a few yards away from some 

 pool. They were nesting or about to nest. 



Arundinicola leucocephala (Linn.). White-headed Marsh 



Flycatcher. 



Closely associated with the above species was the white- 

 headed flycatcher. The colors of the male were also black and 

 white, but the pattern was more simple, the white being confined 

 to the head, neck and a patch on each flank. In the males the 

 upper mandible and the distal third of the lower, are black, the 

 remaining portion of the under mandible being light yellow. 

 They were in breeding condition. 



There was no competition between these two pied, marsh- 

 loving flycatchers, as they hunted in diiferent strata. The 

 white-headed birds kept altogether to the topmost twigs of low 

 shrubs, from whence they now and then made quick sallies after 

 passing insects in typical flycatcher fashion. A single sharp 

 chirp was the only note I heard them utter. The females, dis- 

 tinguished by their gray upper parts, were more timid and hunt- 

 ed among the denser thickets. 



