616 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



fond of feeding on the swarms of travelling ants so commonly met with 

 in the lowlands. It has two different notes which are uttered on 

 different occasions. The ordinary alarm note is heard only when 

 the bird is disturbed, and is rapidly repeated and rather harsh. The 

 call note is given by the male only, and is not often heard except dur- 

 ing the breeding season. It consists of from two to five clear whistling 

 notes of two different pitches, the first higher than the rest. Some- 

 times but one note of the lower pitch will be given and again from two 

 to four, but all of the same tone. This call note is very similar to that 

 of both Formicarius and Hylopezus, but with practice they can all be 

 readily distinguished. 



I took the nest of this species at Guapiles, July 13, 1905, contain- 

 ing two fresh eggs. The nest was made of leaves, weed-stalks, and 

 roots, lined with fine brown weed-fiber, and placed in a cluster of ferns 

 in the thick jungle, about a foot above the earth. The eggs are 

 whitish, but suffused over nearly the whole surface with reddish-purple, 

 and speckled, scrawled, and blotched with deep purplish-chestnut and 

 lilac, gathered about the larger end in the form of a cap. Measure- 

 ments : 22 X 17.5 and 22.5 x 17 mm. 



351. Myrmeciza occidentalis (Cherrie). 



Myrmeciza immaculata Boucard, P. Z. S., 1878, 61, part (San Mateo, Costa 

 Rica). — Nutting, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., V, 1882, 398 (La Palma de Nicoya). 



— Zeledon, An. Mus. Nac. de C. R., I, 1887, 115, part (Las Trojas and Pozo 

 Azul de Pirris). — Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XV, 1890, 279, part. 



Myrmeciza immaculata occidentalis Cherrie, Auk, VIII, 1891, 191 (type from 

 Pozo Azul de Pirris [Zeledon] ; also Las Trojas [Alfaro] and Bebedero [Under- 

 wood]). 



Myrmelastes occidentalis Cherrie, Expl. Zool. en C. R., 1890-1, 1893, 43 (Palmar, 

 Boruca, Lagarto, and Buenos Aires). — Carriker, Ann. Carnegie Mus., V, 

 i, 1908, 10 (critical). 



Myrmelastes exsul occidentalis Hellmayr, Nov. Zool., XII, 1906, 340 (critical). 



— Bangs, Auk, XXIV, 1907, 296 (Boruca, Paso Real, El Pozo, and Barranca 

 de Terraba [Underwood]). 



U. S. Nat. Museum : Pozo del Pital (Cherrie), Pozo Azul de Pirris 



(Underwood). 

 Bangs Collection : Buenos Aires and El General de Terraba ; Pozo 



Azul de Pirris (Underwood). 

 Carnegie Museum : Pozo Azul de Pirris, Esparta, El P6zo de Terraba, 



Boruca, Buenos Aires (Carriker). Twenty skins. 



Mr. Hellmayr, in recent critical remarks on this species, considers it 



