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13

Rhamphocelus, Mar. 9, 1958, II        

This new nervous [[female symbol]] has tended to assume the flying int. mov. posture mentioned on p.12. More or less comme ça:

[[image - sketch of a bird]]

The angle of the back & tail is rather variable. This posture drawn here is perhaps the most extreme. (The corresponding posture of the Sangre de Toro is more conspicuous because of the more elongate shape of the species. This posture does seem to be ritualized to some extent (perhaps in correlation with the brightly colored rump which it displays very conspicuously), but I am fairly sure that it is nothing more than a signal of the "hesitant" desire to fly - although it does, of course, suggest the way in which the St probably originated.

The fact that I have caught 3 Yellow-rumps in the last 2 days (within 24 hrs in fact), after not having seen any for 6 months, would almost suggest migration.

The Yellow-Rumps seem to fan their tails just like the Sangre de Toros.

This afternoon the left orange Yellow-rump has become a little more active. Flying around the cage from time to time. Uttering single or double notes which appear to be homologous with the "Wheet"s of the Sangre de Toros. Must be transcribed in the same way as the Sangre de Toro notes, but they are thinner & buzzier, almost with a "twang. The fact that the bird has begun to do them now, at the same time that it has begun to show a little aggressiveness (see below) would indicate