FAMILY TROGLODYTIDAE 



77 



the second immediately following by the female. They also have the 

 rattling notes common to related wrens. Skutch (Pacific Coast Avif., 

 no. 34, 1960, p. 125) describes a varied series of musical sounds that he 

 attributed to immature birds. 



Eisenmann considers the songs, although musical and varied, to lack 

 the richness and sweetness, and often the loudness of those given in 

 central Panama by other wrens of the genus Thryothorus. Most songs 

 include the cheenchirigwee phrase that gives the species its vernacular 

 name in Costa Rica. Sometimes the last note slides down at the end, 

 or the phrase may be changed to weereewee; these phrases are often 

 introduced by other notes, or the phrase may be replaced by a more 

 musical cheechooee or cheeweetweet or variants. A very distinctive call 

 is a loud, rapid tsiptsip-tsrrrrrr, sometimes just tsirrrrrr, suggesting 

 the sound produced by the whirling wooden rattle often used in New 

 Year's Eve celebrations. At El Valle, Code, on August 30, 1951, he 

 observed a pair duetting: one delivered a phrase of usually four notes 

 and the other added two, over and over (see also Worth, Bird-Lore, 

 1939, p. 282 on antiphonal singing in Chiriqui by birds perched a few 

 inches from each other). 



Blake (Condor, vol. 58, 1956, p. 387) recorded a nest and eggs, col- 

 lected by T. Monniche near Boquete, May 10, 1932, as the usual 

 rounded ball "loosely woven of dried grass" with a lining of finer ma- 

 terial and chicken feathers. The two partly incubated eggs were "dull 

 white, unmarked, and measure 21.5x14.3 and 22.3x14.2 mm." The 

 field journal of G. Ralph Meyer for July 7, 1941, records a nest in the 

 Canal Zone built in a croton hedge along the front of the military quar- 

 ters. This contained three white eggs which seemed very large for the 

 size of the bird. As they were well incubated they were not collected. 



Six nests in the collection of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate 

 Zoology, collected by Andrews Williams and Mrs. Elsie Fiala from 

 March 21 to June 30, 1971, in the Rio Terraba-Golfo Dulce area in 

 Costa Rica, were alike in rounded form, with the entrance at one side. 

 Each held two eggs. One, on April 10, 1971 (parent wren flushed from 

 the nest) , with the entrance on the side near the top, held one egg of the 

 wren and one of the parasitic Striped Cuckoo, Tap era naevia excellens. 



Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif., no. 34, 1960, pp. 123-129) describes be- 

 havior and nesting, chiefly in Costa Rica, pointing out that in addition 

 to the globular breeding nest, this species builds a domed dormitory 

 nest of much looser construction with a larger side entrance, used by the 

 male while the female sleeps in the breeding nest. 



