258 i;rooklyn institute museum, science UUELETIN 2. 6. 
An immature bird collected at Las Barrancas, August i, 1907, 
is nearly uniform bistre brown above, the wings and tail dusky brown- 
ish edged with the color of the back ; below, the throat and belly are 
pale bufif washed with ochraceous. Sides of upper breast brownish 
olive almost meeting across the breast; under tail-coverts, sides and 
flanks buffy olive ; vmder wing-coverts ochraceous buff. In life the 
eye was sepia brown ; bill above black, below dusky grey ; feet dusky 
pea green. 
The White-throated Spine-tails frequent the almost impenetrable 
thickets of thorny bushes, vines and stunted trees that spring up in 
areas which have been cleared for cultivation and later abandoned, and 
also in localities where the soil seems so poor as to be unable to sup- 
port anything besides thorny bushes. 
In habits they remind one somewhat of the wrens. Their flight 
is weak and when disturbed they only fly a few feet at a time, from 
one thicket to another, rarely if ever mounting into the tree tops. 
The breeding season is evidently a long one, as at Caicara I have 
found nests with fresh eggs the first of May and again in the middle 
of August. The nests are extraordinary structures from 40 to 50 cm. 
in length, composed of dry, usuall}' thorny twigs, from 5 to 15 cm. 
in length, skillfully woven into an ujjright cylindrical shaped 
mass with a long tubular entrance to the nest cavity, which occupies 
the lower half of the c\-linder. They are sometimes built within from 
3.5 to 15 cm. of the ground among the thorns of low bushes, the foliage 
of which completely hides the nest. Again, I have found them 1.22 m. 
from the ground, above the tops of the surrounding bushes, not in 
any way concealed, the body of the nest resting in the forks of a low 
tree and the entrance tube supported along the top of one of the' limbs. 
The twigs at the top of the body of the nest are laid longitudinally so 
as to form a sort of thatched roof over all. The eggs are a uniform 
pale greenish in color ; and three constitute a full set. 
A nest, and three fresh eggs taken at Caicara May 9th, was built 
only about 15 cm. above the ground in a low dwarfed tree, whose 
branches bristled with short, thin and exceedingly sharp thorns. It 
was completely concealed from above and on the sides by foliage. 
The nest is constructed entirely of small, dry, and for the most part 
thorny sticks, from 5 to 12 cm. in length. But, in spite of the thorns, 
and the consequent irregular shape of the twigs employed, they are 
laid together and interwoven with such skill that only ^■ery small 
