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Ramphocelus, Dec. 20, 1958, II

There is another species of Ramphocelus around here. Looks just like the Black-throated Tanager at the Bronx Zoo, except that most of the individuals are much brighter colored, brilliant flaming scarlet & black. Some individuals seem to be paler, however, (although not quite as pale as the N.Y. specimen), and I think that this must be the same species, nigrogularis. I shall mark all my observations of the species here with ////in addition to (red lines here).

I saw 3 birds of this species today. Either 2 adult males (very bright) and 1 adult male (more orange), or 2 adults and one juvenile. Not very active. The most interesting thing about them was that they were moving about with a group of at least 3 or 4 Silver-bills! The first mixed tanager flock I have seen here as far as I could tell, however, the 2 species did not react to one another except by sticking more or less closely together.

The Black-throats were quite as active as the Silver-bill in general. Flying from tree to tree approximately as often. (This means that the N.Y. individual was unusually sluggish, presumably due to its poor state of health.)

The Black-throats also uttered "Tsit" CN's quite frequently just about as frequently as the Silver-bills in the same group. And I swear that I can't tell the "Tsit"s of the 2 species apart. I wonder if it is really significant that these 2 species which associate with one another at least sometimes are the only 2 species of Ramphocelus (that I know of) that lack the "Auh" CN's completely, and use the "Tsit" exclusively or almost exclusively instead. Might be a slight case of social (?)

I saw only one brief bit of other display. A very bright