480 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



walled, shallow cup placed from 0.7 to 3 m from the ground and made 

 mainly of rootlets. One nest was 10 cm in outside diameter by 5 cm 

 high; the cavity was 7.5 by 5 cm in diameter by 4 cm deep. Two eggs 

 are the usual clutch, although occasionally three are found. They are 

 "pale blue-gray, heavily overlaid and mottled with shades of dark 

 brown, which on the thick end almost masks the ground color." The 

 measurements of twelve eggs average 24.2 X 17.3 mm. The incubation 

 period is 14 to 16 days. The young are fed insects and can fly consider- 

 able distances when they leave the nest at 11 or 12 days. 



EUCOMETIS PENICILLATA CRISTATA (DuBus) 



Pipilopsis cristata Du Bus, 1855, Bull. Acad. Roy. Sci., Lettr. et Beaux-Arts de 

 Belgique, 22 (pt. 1), p. 153. (Colombia.) 



Characters. — Crown, nape, and sides of throat silvery greenish gray; 

 crown slightly more crested than in stictothorax; center of throat 

 streaked with white. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Panama), wing 88.0-91.2 (89.5), 

 tail 73.0-80.8 (76.7), culmen from base 15.5-18.8 (17.3), tarsus 20.3- 

 22.1 (21.0) mm. 



Females (10 from Panama), wing 82.3-90.0 (86.4), tail 72.6-79.0 

 (76.0), culmen from base 15.7-18.6 (17.3), tarsus 19.7-21.7 (20.9) 

 mm. 



Resident. Uncommon in lowlands on the Pacific slope from La 

 Campana, western Province of Panama, where on March 6, 1951, I 

 found 2 in forest near the Rio Camaron, east to the Colombian bound- 

 ary, and on the Caribbean slope from El Uracillo, Code, where I took 

 a male February 29, 1952, eastward. The Smithsonian has 2 specimens 

 taken by Heyde and Lux in 1889 at Chitra, Veraguas, and Cascajal, 

 Code. The race is also found in northern Colombia and western 

 Venezuela. 



In Panama, there are records of breeding from March through July. 

 Brown collected a female with an egg in the oviduct on March 25, 1900 

 (Bangs, Proc. New England Zool. Club, vol. 2, 1900, p. 29); Eisen- 

 mann (Smiths. Misc. Coll. vol. 117, no. 5, 1952, p. 56) found a nest on 

 Barro Colorado Island, Canal Zone, with an egg that hatched July 11, 

 1948. The nest and eggs are similar to those of E. p. stictothorax. 

 R. A. Johnson (Proc. Linn. Soc. New York, nos. 63-65, 1954, pp. 57- 

 58) noted that at Barro Colorado Island this species was a regular at- 

 tendant at the raiding swarms of the ant Eciton burchelli, but did not 

 follow them outside its territory. 



