FAMILY COEREBIDAE 



515 



in groups they regularly give a thin, nasal chaa. The male also has a 

 poorly developed dawn song, a series of weak, nasal tsips and a more 

 rarely delivered rapid, varied song audible only for a few yards 

 (Skutch, Condor, 1962, p. 107). When singing, the bill is usually 

 pointed straight up (Smith, Aviculture, vol. 6, ser. 3, no. 1, 1936, pp. 

 1-2). Eisenmann writes that the only vocalizations he has heard have 

 been variations of thin, reedy, or hissing notes, zzee or tsit, such as tsst, 

 tsst, dzi-dzl-dzi-dzee, and a more nasal dzey. Once at Barro Colorado 

 Island he saw an adult male give a loud, clear, metallic monosyllabic 

 note while perched outside a cage containing males and females; 1 of 

 the caged males also uttered the metallic note. 



Unlike any other resident Panamanian passerine bird that I know of, 

 the adult male Red-legged Honeycreeper molts into an "eclipse" plum- 

 age after its breeding season. This plumage resembles the female's 

 except for retaining the black remiges and rectrices. Skutch (op. ext., 

 p. 110) found that in Costa Rica this molt begins in June and by Oc- 

 tober males have reacquired their blue plumage; variations in timing 

 from year to year seem to be correlated with the amount of rainfall in 

 the first half of the year — when the dry season lasts longer the molt is 

 delayed. 



The breeding season in Panama starts some time before March, since 

 on March 14, 1949, at Chico, Panama, I found a female feeding a 

 juvenile recently from the nest. However, other females I have col- 

 lected at that time were only in near-breeding condition; two such ex- 

 amples are a female taken at La Campana, Panama, on March 4, 1951, 

 and 1 from Chilar, Colon, on March 11, 1952. Eisenmann (Smiths. 

 Misc. Coll., vol. 117, no. 5, 1952, p. 50) records a juvenile being fed on 

 Barro Colorado Island April 6, 1937, and E. A. Goldman's notes refer 

 to a fledged young bird at Gatun, Canal Zone, on May 16, 1911. 



Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif. no. 31, 1954, pp. 387-403) has found the 

 nest of this species in Costa Rica. It is placed from 3 to 15 m off the 

 ground in trees or bushes. The female, who builds the nest alone, be- 

 gins by wrapping cobweb around the base of the diverging twigs that 

 will support the nest. A cup made of fine rootlets from epiphytes and 

 grass stems is placed on this support. One nest measured 6 cm in 

 diameter and 3 cm in height; the internal diameter was 5 cm and the 

 depth was 2.5 cm. During construction the male follows closely be- 

 hind his mate, but does not otherwise assist. 



The clutch is two eggs. They are white, with little gloss, and are 

 speckled with bright brown, most heavily in a wreath around the large 

 end. Two measured 19.1x13.5 mm. The incubation period is 12 or 



