Page:Condor5(4).djvu/12

 JtJn, x9o3l THE CONDOR 93 Meanwhile several birds had fallen to Underwood's gun, including two wood- peekers, Aelanerfies/offmani and Chloronerfiesyucatanensis, a peculiar cuckoo-like bird, Piaya cayana thermopMla, having a long graduated tail, and a large Costa Riea woodhewer (Xip/ocolaples emig'rans costaricensis). We had now emerged from the jungle into an open, park-like porlrero, or pasture, where the trees were much larger, and grew in scattered clumps. Roots grew out from the trunks at a good height and hung to the ground like immense cables, while the upper branches supported an endless variety of orchids, bromelias, air plants, mosses and lichens. A small tree having sweet-scented, white flowers was resorted to by humming birds in large numbers, Reiffer hummingbirds being the most abundant. A large species with a white rump was not secured. One male specimen of the Helana coquette (Lophornis helene), an exquisite little gem, was taken high up in a tree at the long, tubular, pink flowers of a climbing vine. The coquette is a very small object when feeding in this manner, and as it does not hum loudly in com- parison with other species often escapes detection. Some guava trees next investigated yielded specimens of Wilson black-cap and chestnut-sided warblers, and summer tanagers, all in poor plumage. A squir- rel (Sciurus aestuanshoffmani), busily breakfasting on the guava fruit, was also taken, and a handsome fellow he was, with his long, silvery tail and fiery under- parts. By this time our presence had been noted by a troop of white-tailed brown jays (Psilerhinus mexicanus), in some trees on the farther edge of the portrero, and they flew away with a great clatter. Many of the small birds appear to rely upon t>silorhinus as a sentinel, for we immediately noticed a great depletion in their numbers. A peculiar croaking or rasping note drew our attention to a pair of cotingas (Tityra semorasciata personata), moving about among the dead limbs of a tall tree, and both birds were secured by a lucky shot. The male was a delicate shade of plumbeous white, with darker wings, and we found great difficulty in keeping the fine plumage of both birds clean on account of the flow of blood from the wounds. A larger tree in the center of the portrero was occupied by a colony of Wag- ler oropendolas (Zarkvnchus wagleri)--commonly called weaver birds in Costa Rica. As many as fifty of their beautiful, pendant nests, each one three or four feet in length, hung from the terminal foliage of the upper branches; the various tree mosses of which they were constructed giving to them a greenish gray color. As we approached, twenty or thirty of the birds flew swiftly away with rapid wing-strokes, but a number remained and peered down at us through the foliage, chattering noisily all the while. A few went into the nests through the entrance hole near the top of the structure, while still others merely poked their heads out. Very young birds were found a few days later in the four nests hanging from the first branch, and seen near the main trunk in the lower portion of the plate." Great difficulty was experienced in securing these nests for examination, Mr. Carriker being obliged to climb the smooth, slender tree to a height of some forty feet betbre reaching the first branch. He then cut off at the base the slender limb bearing the nests, and carefully lowered them to the ground. After examining the young birds the nests were fastened to the lowest branch of the tree in the hope that the parent birds might find and care for the young ones. While in the tree Mr. Carriker also secured several empty,nests which were preserved as specimens. Among others the following North American birds were noted by Mr. Under- wood and myself in the portrero: swallow-tailed kite, sparrow hawk, black vulture, mourning dove and scissor-tailed flycatcher. a. Taken near La Gloria., five miles east of Juan Vinas. There are over thirty nests in the colony.