Carriker: List of the Birds of Costa Rica. 851 



This is a very common tanager over the Caribbean lowlands and lower 

 slopes, wherever cleared or cultivated lands are found. It also frequents 

 the high grass and wild cane along the margins of the rivers, but is espe- 

 cially fond of second-growth scrub and bushy pastures and roadsides. It 

 is found regularly up to 3,000 feet, and stragglers have even been taken as 

 high up as Cartago. There are several records for this bird from the 

 Pacific slope, but I am quite positive that it does not occur there, and that 

 all references to it on the Pacific slope actually pertain to R. costari- 

 censis. The males of the two species are absolutely indistinguishable, 

 which would lead to an error of that kind were no females taken. The 

 birds are usually quite noisy, their notes under ordinary circumstances being 

 quite harsh and unmelodious. They have, however, a very fine song which 

 I have rarely heard and then only in the early morning in some secluded 

 spot when the male thought he was unobserved. Mr. Cherrie mentions 

 this same song in connection with R. costaricensis. 



I found the birds breeding abundantly about Guapiles, Jimenez, and 

 El Hogar, and numerous nests with fresh eggs were taken or observed 

 during May and June. A nest taken near Jimenez, May 12, 1905, was 

 typical of the species. It was made of leaves, grass, and roots, lined with 

 rootlets, the whole put together in a very loose, slipshod manner, and 

 placed in a large clump of grass near the railroad track. The nest is 

 built in a great variety of locations, sometimes near the ground in clumps 

 of grass or on the limbs of large shrubs and low trees. Two eggs are in- 

 variably laid, of varying shades of pale blue or greenish-blue, with a few 

 markings of lilac, sparsely spotted and dotted over the entire surface with 

 burnt umber, very much like the eggs of the Red-winged Blackbird. The 

 average measurements are: 23X17 mm. 



673. Ramphocelus costaricensis Cherrie. 



Ramphocelus passerinii Nutting, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., V, 1882,391 (between 



San Jose and Puntarenas). 

 Rhamphoccelus passerinii Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, I, 1883, 



281, part (Barranca [Arce]). — Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XI, 1886, 176, 



part (Barranca [Arce]). 

 Ramphocelus costaricensis Cherrie, Auk, VIII, 1891, 62 (Pozo Aziil de Pirris; 



coll. U. S. Nat. Mus.); Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIV, 1891, 531 (crit.).— 



Ridgway, Birds N. and Mid. Amer., II, 1902, in (southwestern Costa Rica: 



Pozo Azul, Boruca, Palmar, Buenos Aires). — Bangs, Auk, XXIV, 1907, 309 



(Boruca, Paso Real, El Pozo de Terraba (Underwood). 

 Ramphoccelus costaricensis Cherrie, Auk, X, 1893, 278 (Boruca, Palmar, and 



Buenos Aires; habits, song, etc.; descr. adult male). 



