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11

Pezopetes, Oct. 9, 1960, IV.  

in its "greeting" phrases.

(Everything I have heard of the vocal patterns of this species during the last 2 days makes the elaborate vocalizations described on Oct. 4th, 1960, p.6, seem more remarkable. These elaborate vocalizations certainly should not be called "song." They may conceivably have been uttered during some sort of hostile encounter like the one I saw today. If not, they were certainly remarkably elaborate for "greetings" between notes.)

This whole dispute today looked very much like a territorial boundary dispute.

None of the birds engaged in this dispute performed any special ritualized movements or assumed any special ritualized postures. Lots of TF's and WF's of course. One bird had a slight CR while it uttered a series of MW's, but other series of MW's were certainly not accompanied by CR.

The posture of the bird uttering MW's with CR was comme ça:

[[image - sketch of a bird]]
Bill opening & closing with each note. 

No special throat fluffing.

I have certainly been surprised, on this trip, by how conspicuous the Pezopetes are.  Not only are they very noisy early in the morning; but they also come out into the open much more frequently than they did last March. I have even seen them feeding unconcernedly on the ground in the middle of a broad (more than 6 ft) open road!

They are not infrequently associated with the large mixed flock here, as they live in the same area; but this association seems to be quite "casual."