Yoshika Oniki

On a Nest of the Planalto Woodcreeper, Dendrocolaptes platyrostris, with Taxonomic and Conservation Notes

Abstract A pair of Planalto Woodcreepers (Dendrocolaptes platyrostris) fed young in a nest cavity 6 m up in a wooded botanic garden of an old eucalyptus grove near São Paulo, Brazil, during October 1982. The pair often visited together at first, one (likely male) raising its head feathers as noted in other species of the genus. Feedings were less frequent at midday. Songs of the southeastern moist forest D. p. platyrostris were strikingly different from inland dry forest D. p. intermedius, despite intermediate specimens where the two rather distinctly colored forms come together. There are several poorly studied forms in interior dry forests, which need much more conservation effort.

Pelecitus helicinus Railliet & Henry, 1910 (Filarioidea, Dirofilariinae) and Other Nematode Parasites of Brazilian Birds

We report Pelecitus helicinus Railliet & Henry, 1910 from 13 species of birds of 2 orders and 7 families, collected from the states of São Paulo and Mato Grosso, Brazil. All 13 constitute new host records for this nematode. In addition, we report the first record of Aprocta golvani Diaz-Ungria, 1963 from Brazil and Monasa nigrifrons (Bucconidae), as well as a number of other nematode records from Neotropical birds.

Temperatures of Some Puerto Rican Birds, with Note of Low Temperatures in Todies

I measured cloaca1 temperatures of 20 species of birds at five localities in Puerto Rico (table 1). Although the altitudes ranged from 100 to 2,100 ft, in most cases I combined data on individuals of a given species, owing to small samples at each locality. Most of the birds showed no wing or tail molt, although some individuals had worn tips on their feathers. Temperatures of the Puerto Rican Tody (To&s mexicanus) were unusually low, being even cooler than that of the Long-tailed Hermit (Phaethornis superciliosus), which has a similar weight (38.6”C, 5.6 g; Oniki, Condor 74:209, 1972). Todies in the hot scrub at Guanica (d) had higher and more usual RIDGWAY, R. 1887. A manual of North American birds. J. B. Lippincott Co. Philadelphia. RIDGWAY, R. 1914. The birds of North and Middle America. U. S. Natl. Mus. Bull. 50, Part VI. RITTER, W. E. 1938. The California Woodpecker and I. Univ. California Press, Berkeley. SWARTH, H. S. 1904. Birds of the Huachuca Mountains, Arizona. Pacific Coast Avifauna, No. 4.

A Nest of the Collared Gnatwren (Microbates collaris)

Large water-snails (referred to as Pomacea flagellata by Smithe, The birds of Tikal, Natural History Press, 1966) were a second item of prey taken at the water edge. A wood-rail, after finding a snail, spent from one to four minutes pounding at it on the ground before tossing the shell away and devouring the body as two separate morsels. I was able to recover the particular shell with certainty (other shells were lying about) on three occasions and found that the bird had made a hole about 0.6 cm in diameter in the side of each shell. Limpkins (Aramus guaraunu) and Everglade Kites (Rostrhamus sociabilis) have specially adapted bills that enable them to feed

Some Temperatures of Panamanian Birds

SHOEMAKER, H. H. 1939. Effect of testosterone propionate on behavior of the female canary. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 41:299-302. THIELCKE-POLTZ, H., AND G. THIELCKE. 1960. Akustisches Lernen verschieden alter schallisolierter Amseln (Turdus merula L.) und die Entwicklung erlernter Motive ohne und mit kiinstlichem Einfluss von Testosteron. Z. Tierpsychol. 17:211-244. THORPE, W. H. 1958. The learning of song patterns by birds, with special reference to the song of the Chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs. Ibis 100:535570. THORPE, W. H. 1961. Bird-song. Cambridge Univ. Press, London. THORPE, W. H. 1964. Singing, p. 739-750. In A. L. Thomson [ed.] A new dictionary of birds. Thomas Nelson & Sons, London & Edinburgh. TURNER, C. D. 1966. General endocrinology. 4th ed. W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia. VAN TYNE, J., AND A. J. BERGER. 1959. Fundamentals of ornithology. John Wiley & Sons, New York.