THE DISPLAY OF THE MANAKIN M. MANACUS

Summary The “dancing rings” of Maracus m. trinitatus are almost invariably constructed in small clearings on the forest floor so that whippy saplings grow from their edges to form spring boards as the manakins ricochet back and forth across the rings. Four sounds are made by both sexes, the snap, the “comb” noise, the growling “grrrrt” and the whirring wings. There is no satisfactory explanation of how these sounds are produced. Apart from casual visits, the hens suddenly all appear at about the same time during the morning to dance with the cocks—one hen to a ring. The only exception to this was a pair that spent most of the day together at their ring. Usually at about 9.30 a.m., all the cocks had drifted away, and then nearly every ring was occupied by a hen, dancing back and forth and producing, although not quite as loudly, the same sounds as produced by the cocks. During the period the manakins were under observation (11 February to 16 March), no quarrelling took place among the cocks although their rings were often less than a foot apart; nor were the hens pursued or mated when they danced with the males. This probably indicates that the pairs using the dance rings were already mated or even with nests.