in the banana plantations, although neither is very 

 abundant. The Salvins were breeding at the time 

 of the writer's visit, cleverly sewing their nests to 

 the under side of the great leaves of the banana. This 

 bird, known locally as chorcha, is a very fine singer, 

 and so valued by the natives that as much as fifty 

 colones (the equivalent of $23.25), are sometimes 

 paid for an exceptionally fine specimen. 



The most abundant Icterine birds in Costa Rica are 

 the Giant Caciques, known to the people as Oropen- 

 dulas. There are two species, the Montezuma Giant 

 Cacique (Gymnostinops montezumae) and the Wag- 

 ler (Zarhynehus wagleri) . The former is bright 

 chestnut in general coloration, with brilliant yellow 

 tail and long red and black beak. The Wagler is 

 black with yellow tail and chestnut back, and is con- 

 siderably smaller than montezumae, the males of 

 which are nearly two feet in length. These great 

 birds live in colonies of from a dozen to fifty individ- 

 uals. Their relationship with our own Orioles is 

 evinced by the structure of the nests — great, pendu- 

 lous sacks of rootlets and Spanish moss, three to four 

 feet in length, but woven in exactty the same fashion 

 as those of the Baltimore Oriole. The trees chosen 

 are always of great height, invariably with smooth, 

 branchless trunks. As many as fifty nests are some- 

 times seen in a single tree, looking like clusters of 

 some giant fruit. 



A beautiful male of montezumae was brought to 

 New York, and may now be seen in the Zoological 

 Park, apparently as contented, and certainly as well 

 fed, as he was in the jungles of Costa Rica. 



