SHORT COMMUNICATIONS

General Biology

ORNITOLOGIA NEOTROPICAL 8: 71-72, 199; @ The Neotropical Ornithologica! Society

THE NEST AND EGGS OF THE CHESTNUT-VENTED CONEBILL CONIROSTRUM SPECIOSUM (TEMMINCK, 1824)

Rómulo Ribon1, 3 & José Eduardo Simon2, 4

1 Setor de Ecologia, Departamento de Biologia Geral, Universidade Federal de ViQosa, 36570-000, ViQosa, MG, Brasil. 2 Museu de Zoologia, Vila Gianetti, casa 32, Universidade Federal de ViQosa, 36570-000, ViQosa, MG, Brasil.

Key words: Conirostrurn speciosurn, Cecropia, nest, eggs,Minas Gerais, Atlantic Forest, Brazil.

The Conirostrum (Lafresnaye & d'Orbig- flocks with the Hooded (Nemosia pilea- ny, 1838) comprises nine species, all endemic to ta), the Rufous-headed Tanager (Hemithraupis the Neotropical Region, where it is widely distri- ruficapilla), the Black-throated Honey-Creeper buted (Meyer de Schauensee 1982)- Of the spe- (Dacnis cayana) and the Gilt-edged Tanager cies of this genus, only C. bicolor and C. cine- (Tangara cyanoventris) (pers. observ.). reum have had their nests and eggs described We found the Conirostrum nest in the Centro (Herklots 1961; Johnson 1967; ffrench 1973). de Pesquisasem Florestas Naturais (also known In addition, Miller (1947) described the con- as the Mata do Para¡so), a 344 ha secondary forest struction of a nest of C. leucogenys,but did not fragment ( of which 196 ha constitute a reserve of include details of materials or shape. the UFV), situated 5 km southeast of the city of The Chestnut-vented Conebill, Conirostrum Vi~osa. The vegetation there is mostly well de- speciosum(Temminck 1824) is widely distributed veloped secondary forest, in places 20 m high, throughout the Neotropics, from the eastern with some bamboo patches, a dense understory Andes to eastern Peru, Bolivia, Amazonian and in almost all the area, and with many liana eastern Brazi1, to southern Paraguay and nor- patches. A dirt road bisects the forest longitu- thern Argentina (Meyer de Schauensee 1982). dinally, and it is bordered by forest along most of Our study was carried out in the municipality of Vi~osa (20 o 45'S 42 o 54'W), State of Minas its length. On 4 November 1994, a pair of C. speciosum Gerais, Brazil. There this speciesis found in the was observed on a dry "embaúba" leaf (Cecropia canopy of secondary forests, in shrubs and on sp.) hanging from a thin liana 4.5 m from the the campus of Universidade Federal de Vi~osa ground at the forest edge by the dirt road. The (UFV). It is frequently found in mixed-species flew off when we approached, but this did not attract our attention and we did not examine 3 Pr1!Sentaddr1!SS: P6s-Gradua"ao em Ecologia, Conserva"ao e Manejo de Vida Silvestre, Instituto de Ciencias Biol6gicas, the leaf at the time. One week later, on 11 Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos, November, we saw a O' C. speciosum(probably 6627, 31270-010, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil. of the same pair) again on the same shriveled leaf. 4 P"'sent addr1!SS:Museu de Zoologia, Vila Gianetti, casa 32, Upon inspecting the site closely, we found a Universidade Federal de Vi"osa, 36570-000, Vi"osa, MG, Brasil. female in a hidden nest, "wrapped" by the leaf.

71 GENERAL BIOLOGY

The cup-shaped nest was built of fine dry ful ta Miguel Angela Marini (UFMG), Anthany petioles and measured 62 mm external diameter, Brame Rylands (UFMG), Sergia Pacheca (UFV) 45 mm internal diameter, 53 mm total height and twa ananimaus reviewers far criticism, and and 22 mm in height of the chamber. The three ta Nyam Flar@;ncia da Silva far help in data eggs were bluish-green with brown spots around callectian. the large ends. They were oval in shape (de la Peña 1987) and measured 17.4 x 12.0; 16.5 x 12.5 REFEREN CES and 16.3 x 12.6 mm, with a mean mass of 1.5 g. ffrench, R. P. 1973. A guide to the birds of Trinidad No further data were collected. The cup-shaped and Tobago. Livingston. nest of c. speciosumagrees with those of c. bico- Herklots, G. A. C. 1961. The birds of Trinidad and lor and c. cinereum. However, it differed with Tobago. London. respect to the material usedin its building, since Johnson, A. W. 1967. The birds of Chile and adjacent the latter two species used material of regions of Argentina, Bolivia, and Pero. Vol. 2. origin, i.e., horse hair or feathers aohnson 1967; Buenos Aires. ffrench 1973). The color pattern of the eggs of Meyer de Schauensee,R. 1982. A guide to the birds of c. speciosumagreed with that given by Herklots South America. Academy of Natural Sciences of (1961) ("pale bluish-green with spots of two Philadelphia. Miller, A. H. 1947. The tropical avifauna of the upper shades of brown fairly evenly and thickly distri- Magdalena Valley, Colombia. Auk 64: 351-381. buted over the surface") for c. bicolor, but the de la Peña, M. R. 1987. Nidos y ovos de avesargentinas. description by ffrench (1973) differed for the Copyright by M. R. Peña. Santa Fe. same species("pale buff with dark brown blotches mainly in the larger end").

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study was supported by CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tec-

nol6gico) scholarships to the authors. We are grate- Accepted 24 May 1996.

72