cherrie: ornithology of the ORINOCO REGION. 241 
A female taken at Caicara May 8th had in the oviduct an egg 
ready to be deposited. On the .same date a nest from which the 
young were just emerging was tuund. It was a natural cavity in the 
trunk of a Cliaparo oak. about 3 m. up. The tree stood at the edge of 
an open savanna. 
Megarhynchus pit.\ngu.\ (Linnaeus). 
Lanius pitangua L., Syst. Nat. ed. 12. I. 1766. p. 136. 
Megarhynchus pitangua Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 48. 
Not uncommon, noted from the delta region as far up the river as 
San Fernando de Atabapo. 
Eye Vandyke brown ; bill and feet black. 
The juvenal plumage is similar to that of the adult, but darker 
above, being dark olive brown, and lacking the colored concealed 
crown patch. A young female taken just as it was leaving the nest 
(collected at Caicara May loth) has the wing and tail quills and wing 
and tail-coverts edged and terminally margined with rufous, the 
feathers of the back hind neck and occiput are narrowly margined with 
grayish buff. 
An immature female taken July lotli (also at Caicara) is in what 
is probably the post-juvenal or first winter plumage. This plumage 
is similar to the juvenal plumage, but the back is more olive and less 
brownish, agreeing more closely with the adult. There are no grey- 
ish buff tips to the feathers of the crown nor to those of the hind neck 
and they are much less prominent than those of the back. The inner 
secondaries are margined on the outer w-ebs and tipped with buffy 
white, the remaining wing quills, wing and tail-coverts and tail quills 
are margined and tipped with pale rufous. 
A nest which the young were just leaving was collected at 
Caicara May loth. It was placed on a horizontal limb of a Cliaparo 
oak about 3 m. up, and at a point where several radiating small 
branches supported it on all sides. It is an open cup-shaped struc- 
ture. The body is composed of coarse dead twigs lined with rather 
coarse vegetable fibers and plant tendrils. Outside it measures 10 cm. 
in depth by 16 cm. in diameter. The nest cavity is about 3.5 cm. 
deep and 9 cm. in diameter. The structure is so loosely put together 
that the eggs might be seen through the nest walls. 
