FAMILY IIIRUNDINIDAE 



31 



Pujals observed 1 above Santa Fe, Veraguas. In the Canal Zone it 

 may be found daily along the Pipeline Road, in the Fort Sherman-San 

 Lorenzo area, and along the Achiote Road. 



In 1961, in the region behind Madden Lake, these swallows were 

 fairly common along the Rio Boqueron in February, and on the Rio 

 Pequeni in March. On Cerro Azul, C. O. Handley, Jr., found them 

 numerous in June 1957, and the following year R. S. Crossin collected 

 1 at the lake on August 12. Near Armila, eastern San Bias, I found 

 them rather common in late February and early March at the edge of 

 forest, back of the Indian farms. 



In the Tuira Basin, Darien, in March 1959, I saw a flock of 30 near 

 the mouth of the Rio Paya. In late January and February 1964, they 

 were fairly prevalent near the village of Pucro on the Rio Pucro; and 

 on March 2, we caught 3 in a mist net set at 250 m on the north fork of 

 this river, in the higher levels of Cerro Tacarcuna. Others were seen 

 in March, lower down at the old village site near the base of the moun- 

 tain. 



Distinguished always by tiny size, they ranged in small flocks, cours- 

 ing over clearings or above the broader, open stretches of streams. 

 Their flight often seems flitting and irregular compared to that of 

 larger swallows with which they associate. They sometimes hawk for 

 insects over the canopy with Chaetura swifts. Occasionally, I noticed 

 them bathing by dipping to the surface of open stretches of water as 

 they circled on the wing. At rest they gather separately from larger 

 swallows, on small branches of dead trees above water or at the border 

 of small openings in the forest. In my experience they were silent. 

 Specimens collected from January to April seemed to be in a resting 

 stage after the nesting season, as some were molting slightly over the 

 body. 



A female taken by E. A. Goldman at Cana had the stomach crammed 

 with fragments of tiny beetles, hemiptera, and hymenoptera. Two col- 

 lected in the Canal Zone area (Strauch, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, 1977, 

 p. 64) weighed 9.1 and 9.2 g. 



The only note on nesting seen is that of Griscom (Amer. Mus. Nov. 

 no. 282, 1927, p. 7) . At the end of February 1927, when he was travel- 

 ing by yacht, "two or three pairs were found on the Sambu River nest- 

 ing in holes in the river bank directly under Indian huts. The birds 

 were remarkably tame and confiding." No account of the nest and eggs 

 is known to me. Eisenmann, however, has seen pairs guarding wood- 

 pecker holes in slender dead trees from at least early April to June, and 

 has never noted nesting in banks. On September 14, 1965, in a wooded 



