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58

Ramphocelus, May 1,1960, I.                    

postures. (One thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that the tail is usually - perhaps always? - depressed a little bit, very rapidly, as each note is uttered. Looks very much like a brief, rapid, D-U Tail Jerk). The male also interrupted his periods of singing "Keeyoo" song to perform short flights, in the same was as yesterday, except that more of his flights (all his flights very early in the morning, when his "Keeyoo" singing was most vigorous) were quite silent!.

Every once in a while this morning the male would land near the female or the female would land near the male. Every time, the male stopped singing (if he had been singing immediately before hand). Several times, very early in the morning, when the male and female came close together, the male appeared to adopt a very brief breast-low Lt(?) Posture, without uttering a sound or raising his wings in any way! At least once, the male went out of this Lt (?) posture immediately and sort of leaned diagonally over the back of the female. Later on in the morning, several times, when the male and female came particularly close together, the male leaned over the female's back in the same way without a trace of preliminary Lt.(?) This "leaning" was always silent and obviously unritualized in form. Apparently an (?) of mounting.

The female always responded to the male's "advances" by flying away from or making pecking or pecking (?) toward him. All or most of these pecking movements or (?) were accompanied by a brief burst of soft MCN's of the WH type. Good evidence that such notes are eventually hostile.

The most interesting performances today were another type of "song" by the male. After he had been uttering "Keeyoo" songs for about 20 minutes to 1/2 hour, the female went down to the food dish to feed. The male remained perched on a high branch, and began to utter alternate "Wheet" CN's and "Auh" CN's instead of "Keeyoo." This alternation of notes was