CHERRIE: ORNITHOLOGY OF THE ORINOCO REGION. I45 
for eggs I watched the parents for some time and noted them fre- 
quently entering and leaving the new nest but not approaching the 
old one in which were the eggs. While I was taking the clutch of 
eggs on April 17th the parent birds remained close by but seemed to 
take little notice of my presence. 
A nest which together with a set of four eggs and the parent birds 
was taken at Caicara May 5th, 1907 (No. 14.655 Geo. K. Cherrie 
Coll.) was a nest of Pitangus sulphuratus rufipennis that, having served 
as a home for a brood of its builders' young, had been abandoned by 
that builder and appropriated by a Cactus Wren. A new lining of 
coarse dry grasses only had been taken in. The nest was located at 
the extreme end of a long horizontal branch of a Guaramal tree and 
was about 2.4 m. above the ground. The parent birds, both 
of which were collected, were not at all demonstrative. The female 
was shot as she left the nest. The ground color of the eggs varies 
from a salmon-bufif to a vinaceous-cinnamon. They are everywhere 
thickly speckled with hazel and chestnut. Of the four eggs, one was 
on the point of hatching, one about half incubated, one fresh, the 
fourth rotten and pierced with two small holes on the larger end. 
They measure 24x17.5; 23x17.5; 23.5 X17.75 and 24.5x16.5 mm. 
respectively. Three are ovate in form and one decidedl}' elongate 
ovate. 
On the 22nd of May, 1907, near La Cascabel on the River San 
Feliz, a nest was found containing two half grown young and one 
rotten egg. The nest was undoubtedly one that had been built by a 
Pitangus. It was about 4.5 m. from the ground. The egg is ovate 
in form and measures 25 x 18 mm. In color the ground is nearly a 
salmon-buff and is thickly speckled with vinaceous-cinnamon. Mr. 
Hartert in describing the eggs sent by the writer to the Tring 
Museum refers to them as "glossy," but that term would hardly be 
applicable to the examples that are before me. 
HelEODytes minor Cabanis.^ 
Helcodytcs minor Cab.. Mus. Hein. I. 1851. p. 80. 
This species was collected at Ciudad Bolivar by Klages, and the 
•In the American Museum collection is a series of specimens from the Santa Marta region. Colombia, 
identified by Allen as H. srisras (Swains) — Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XUI. 1900. p. iSo— that seem to 
belong to this species, but doubtless represent a different race that differs from the Venezuelan birds by the 
almost total lack of barring to the tail-feathers (being faintly indicated in three or four only), and in the 
greater extent and deeper shade of chestnut red on the back, rump, and wing-quill edges. 
