Argentine Ornithology Volume I Part 24

_Hab._ Colombia and southwards to Argentina.

This species, which is of wide distribution, was met with in Corrientes by d'Orbigny.

122. ALECTRURUS TRICOLOR, Vieill.

(c.o.c.k-TAILED TYRANT.)

+Alectrurus tricolor+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 43.

_Description._--Above black, rump greyish; sides of the head, scapularies, lesser wing-coverts, and outer margins of secondaries white; tail black, outer rectrix on each side produced, expanded, fan-shaped; below white, patch on each side of the breast (forming an incomplete collar) black; bill horn-colour; feet black: whole length 72 inches, wing 28; tail, outer rectr. 25, middle rectr.

15. _Female_: above brown, rump and lesser wing-coverts pale; beneath dirty white, sides of breast brown.

_Hab._ S. Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentine Republic.

This species generally resembles the one next described, and has, like it, a black, white, and grey plumage. But the tail, although strange, is constructed on a different pattern. The total length of the bird is five and a half inches, the tail being only two and a half. The two outer tail-feathers have remarkably stout shafts, with broad coa.r.s.e webs, and look like stumps of two large feathers originally intended for a bigger bird, and finally cut off near their base and given to a very small one. In the male these two feathers are carried vertically and at right angles to the plane of the body, giving the bird a resemblance to a diminutive c.o.c.k; hence the vernacular name 'Gallito,' or Little c.o.c.k, by which it is known.

I have not observed this species myself, but Azara has the following paragraph about its habits:--"The male sometimes rises slowly and almost vertically, with tail raised, and rapidly beating its wings, and looking while ascending in this way more like a b.u.t.terfly than a bird; and when it has reached a height of ten or twelve yards, it drops obliquely to the earth and perches on a stalk." He adds that the males are solitary, but several females are sometimes seen near together, and that the females are greatly in excess of the males.

123. ALECTRURUS RISORIUS (Vieill.).

(STRANGE-TAILED TYRANT.)

+Alectrurus guira-yetapa+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 43; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 60 (Buenos Ayres). +Alectrurus risorius+, _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 140 (Entrerios).

+Alectrurus psalurus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 457 (S.

Luis).

_Description._--Above black, rump grey; front varied with white; wings black, scapularies, outer margins of wing-feathers and coverts white; tail black, two outer rectrices much elongated, denuded at the base, with a broad inner and no outer vane; below white, broad band across the breast black; throat in the breeding-season bare of feathers and of a bright orange; bill yellowish; feet black: whole length 110 inches, wings 30; tail, outer rectrices 80, middle 20. _Female_: above brown, wings varied with white; beneath white; breast-band pale brown; tail with the two outer rectrices slightly elongated and denuded, terminated with spatulations on the inner vane.

_Hab._ S. Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentine Republic.

Azara named this species _Cola estrana_ (Strange-tail), but mentions incidentally that its Guarani name is 'guira-yetapa' (Scissor-tail), a term which the Indians apply indiscriminately to several species having the same sort of tail.

The Guira-yetapa is a very curious little bird, with a black, white, and grey plumage and the beak of a true Tyrant; but it differs from all its congeners in having the skin of the chin, throat, and sides of the head bare of feathers, and these parts in the breeding-season are a bright orange colour. It is a feeble flier, its wings being very short, while the two outer tail-feathers are abnormally long and peculiar in form.

Mr. Barrows says:--"The remarkable condition of the outer pair of tail-feathers is interesting. In the male these two feathers reach a length of nearly ten inches, the rest of the tail being about three inches in length. The vane on the _inner_ side of each is wanting for the first two inches, and then suddenly develops to a width of nearly two inches, which it maintains almost to the tip, when it gradually narrows. The vane on the _outer_ side of the shaft is only about one-quarter of an inch wide, and is folded so tightly against the shaft that it is quite inconspicuous. In the only two males of this species which I have seen flying, these long feathers seemed to be carried folded together _beneath_ the rest of the tail, and stretching out behind like a rudder or steering-oar, their vanes at right angles to the plane of the rest of the tail."

Mr. Gibson gives a different account, and says the flight is singularly feeble, resembling the fluttering pa.s.sage of a b.u.t.terfly through the air, while the tail streams out behind.

It inhabits Paraguay, Uruguay, and the eastern portion of the Argentine Republic, ranging as far south as the pampas in the neighbourhood of Patagonia. It is usually seen singly or in pairs; Azara says he saw a flock of thirty individuals, but as they were all _females_, it may be that in this species, as in _Lichenops perspicillata_, the females are sometimes gregarious, and the males always solitary. It frequents open places, such as the borders of marshes, or plains covered with tall gra.s.ses, and perches in a conspicuous place, from which it darts at pa.s.sing insects like a Flycatcher.

Mr. Gibson found its nest on the ground amongst herbage, and describes it as a neat structure of dried gra.s.s, containing three white eggs with a faint cream-coloured tinge.

124. CYBERNETES YETAPA (Vieill.).

(YETAPA TYRANT.)

+Cybernetes yetapa+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 43; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 604 (Itapua, Misiones).

_Description._--Above h.o.a.ry grey, with lineiform blackish shaft-stripes; wings black, with large chestnut-brown patch occupying the outer webs of the inner primaries; tail of twelve much graduated feathers, black; outer web of external rectrices white; beneath same as above, but rather paler; throat and crissum white; patch on each side of the neck, and collar across the neck dark chestnut-brown; under wing-coverts and inner webs of wing-feathers white; bill pale brown; feet black: whole length 160 inches, wing 50; tail, extreme rectrix 125, middle 26. _Female_ similar, but less bright.

_Hab._ S.E. Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Northern Argentina.

Azara found this singular species not uncommon in Paraguay, and since his brief notice of it in the 'Apuntamientos' nothing concerning its habits has been recorded. It has a somewhat laboured flight, he says; lives in pairs or families, frequenting low or marshy grounds, where it perches on the summit of the reeds or bushes, and flies down to the ground to capture insects. It also occasionally dashes after pa.s.sing insects, taking them on the wing. It has a loud whistle, which it utters frequently without any variation.

125. SISOPYGIS ICTEROPHRYS (Vieill.).

(YELLOW-BROWED TYRANT.)

+Sisopygis icterophrys+, _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 141; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 43; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 176 (Buenos Ayres); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 29 (Buenos Ayres): _White, P. Z.

S._ 1882, p. 604 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 141 (Entrerios). +Taenioptera icterophrys+, _Burm.

La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 460 (Parana).

_Description._--Above bright olive-green, head rather greyish, lores and superciliary stripes yellow; wings blackish, broad ends of coverts and outer edges of secondaries dirty white; tail blackish; beneath bright yellow, sides of breast and flanks olivaceous; under wing-coverts whitish; bill dark horn-colour; feet black: whole length 61 inches, wing 35, tail 27. _Female_ similar, but less bright.

_Hab._ S.E. Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Northern La Plata, and highlands of Bolivia and Peru.

This small and pretty Tyrant-bird is quite common in the woods along the Plata, and is also seen a great deal in orchards and groves in the cultivated districts. In Buenos Ayres it is a summer visitor, appearing there in October, and is a shy, solitary bird, which catches insects on the wing, and rarely visits the ground.

The nest is placed in a tree, ill-concealed, and very shallow: it is built of fine sticks, and lined with fine gra.s.s, horse-hair, and feathers. The eggs are four, pointed, pale cream-colour, with large dark red spots, chiefly at the larger end.

The only language of this species is a very low plaintive whistle, uttered as a faint protest when the nest is approached.

The upper plumage is olive-green; the entire under surface and a stripe on the side of the head pure yellow; wing and tail-quills dark. Total length 6-1/4 inches.

126. CNIPOLEGUS ANTHRACINUS, Heine.

(ASHY-BLACK TYRANT.)

+Cnipolegus anthracinus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 43; _Salv.

Ibis_, 1880, p. 356 (Salta); _Doring, Exp. al Rio Negro, Zool._ p. 24 (Patagonia). +Cnipolegus aterrimus+, _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 604 (Misiones). +Cnipolegus hudsoni+, _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 39 (Cordova)? +Myiarchus fasciatus+, _Leybold, J. f. O._ 1865, p. 402 (Mendoza), ?.

_Description._--Above dull black, a broad bar across the vanes of the inner webs of the wing-feathers white; bill plumbeous; feet black: whole length 63 inches, wing 35, tail 30. _Female_ ashy brown; rump, upper tail-coverts, and basal portions of tail bright rufous; wings blackish, with two white transverse stripes; beneath pale fulvous, white on the belly; bill and feet black.

_Hab._ Northern Argentina.

Unfortunately very little is yet known about the habits of these interesting little Tyrant-birds, for which I should like to suggest the common name "_Spectacular_," for reasons I shall say more about when I come to describe the _Lichenops perspicillatus_, a species which undoubtedly belongs to this peculiar well-defined group. The plumage of the male is, in most cases, intensely black, and there is a pure white bar on the remiges, hidden when the bird is perched, and when it flies made doubly conspicuous by the peculiar motion of the wings. In all the known species the female has a dull brown plumage, lined or mottled with dusky tints, and with some portion of the wing-quills marked with rufous or chestnut colour.

The Ashy-black Tyrant inhabits the Mendoza district, and is also a summer visitor in Patagonia, where it was obtained by Dr. Doring.

Speaking of its habits, he says the male is solitary, perches on the summit of a bush or dry twig, emits at intervals a song or call composed of two syllables, plaintive and flute-like in character, and uttered while the bird rises up a few feet into the air. During this performance the white bands on the wings are displayed conspicuously and a humming sound is produced.

127. CNIPOLEGUS HUDSONI, Scl.

(HUDSON'S BLACK TYRANT.)