FAMILY TROGLODYTIDAE 



59 



Andes, to northeastern Argentina. The Panama race is recorded from 

 Darien and northern Colombia to the Santa Marta region. 



On April 1, 1967, Eisenmann and H. Loftin found a small colony 

 of three or more pairs near El Real, Darien, in a dry Montrichardia 

 marsh with scattered bushes. Pairs displayed on leafless bushes, 

 perched a few inches apart. In one pair watched at close range, the 

 upper individual gave a whirrr or chirrr and spread the tail slightly as 

 it moved from side to side; the lower bird sitting on a different twig 

 answered with a louder, more musical, semiwhistled kweea, kweea, 

 kweea, also moving its tail. Eisenmann and Loftin did not notice the 

 bare yellow skin, although they watched this pair perform three times 

 at close range, once using a different perch, but in each case with the 

 louder voiced bird sitting lower. 



On April 10, 1968, P. Schwartz took Eisenmann to a swampy pond 

 in northern Venezuela, near the coast, where there was a small colony 

 in a region of damp second-growth woodland. The birds perched on 

 bushes in or near the pond. Both members of a pair perched on the 

 same bush and vocalized antiphonally while wagging partly spread tails 

 and sometimes exposing the bare orange-yellow neck skin. The semi- 

 whistled call was noted as wo-ee (or hoo-ee), wo-ee, wo-ee and the 

 harsh call as a wheezing or buzzy wuzee, wuzee, wuzee. The differences 

 in syllabification made in the field a year apart may or may not indicate 

 a difference in vocalizations heard from 2 subspecies. 



Donacobius inhabits dense growths of grasses and rushes grow- 

 ing in open fresh-water swamps. While I have worked at El Real sev- 

 eral times, I have not found it. The marshy areas bordering the lower 

 Rio Pirre are suitable habitat. 



Fuertes (Bird-Lore, vol. 15, 1913, p. 342) described the song of male 

 Donacobius as a loud, whistled note like that of our Cardinal, with the 

 female accompanying him with a low grunting call. He described and 

 figured in both sexes an inflatable sac of bright yellow skin on the side 

 of the throat "which when the bird sings, puffs out to the size of a 

 cherry." 



Skutch (Condor, vol. 70, 1968, pp. 74-75) in Venezuela, described 

 the nest as a deep cup built around tall grass stems. The eggs "ap- 

 peared to be uniform light, reddish brown. Closer scrutiny revealed 

 that they were mottled rather than uniformly colored, but so densely as 

 to cover the whole surface with slightly varying shades of reddish 

 brown." The "three eggs measured 25.5 by 16.5, 24.7 by 16.8, and 

 24.4 by 16.3 mm." The young at hatching were without down. 



Because of its uncertain taxonomy (it differs from the Mimidae, 



