Argentine Ornithology Volume I Part 31

(SHORT-BILLED TYRANT.)

+Contopus brachyrhynchus+, _Cab. J. f. O._ 1883, p. 214.

_Description._--Above cinereous, lores whitish; wings and tail blackish, with slight whitish edgings to the wing-coverts and outer secondaries; beneath paler, whitish in the middle of the belly; flanks with a concealed white patch; bill above brown, beneath pale; feet black: whole length 70 inches, wing 40, tail 32.

_Hab._ Northern Argentina.

Herr Schulz, who discovered this species near Tuc.u.man, tells us that it is a summer visitor, and is usually seen perched on the tops of the highest trees on the look-out for insects.

165. CONTOPUS BRACHYTARSUS, Scl.

(SHORT-FOOTED TYRANT.)

+Contopus brachytarsus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 52; _White, P.

Z. S._ 1882, p. 608 (Salta).

_Description._--Above dark plumbeous olive; crown darker, blackish; wings and tail blackish; the wing-coverts and outer secondaries more or less edged with whitish; beneath dirty white, clearer on the throat and middle of the belly, which latter has sometimes an olivaceous tinge; bill above blackish, beneath yellowish white; feet blackish; first primary shorter than the fifth: whole length 53 inches, wing 29, tail 25. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Central and South America.

White found this widely ranging Tyrant "not uncommon in the forests of Salta."

166. MYIARCHUS TYRANNULUS (Mull.).

(RUSTY-TAILED TYRANT.)

+Suiriri pardo y roxo+, _Azara, Apunt._ ii. p. 143. +Myiarchus erythrocercus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 52.

_Description._--Above brownish cinereous, crown rather darker; wings blackish, primaries narrowly edged with rufous, secondaries and coverts more broadly with dirty white; tail blackish, all the lateral rectrices with the greater part of the inner web rufous, leaving only a narrow blackish border alongside the shaft; beneath, throat and breast pale cinereous; belly and under wing-coverts pale sulphur-yellow; inner margin of rectrices pale rufous; bill dark horn-colour; feet blackish: whole length 74 inches, wing 38, tail 32. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ South America down to Argentina.

An example of this species, now in the British Museum, was procured by White in Catamarca.

167. MYIARCHUS FEROX (Gm.).

(FIERCE TYRANT.)

+Myiarchus tyrannulus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 52; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 61 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 608 (Salta); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ vol. viii p. 202 (Entrerios). +Myiarchus ferocior+, _Cab. J. f. O._ 1883, p. 214 (Tuc.u.man).

_Description._--Above dark cinereous, more or less olivaceous; wings and tail blackish; wing-coverts and outer secondaries with more or less defined edgings of dirty white; beneath, throat and breast cinereous, abdomen and under wing-coverts sulphur-yellow; bill dark brown; feet blackish: whole length 70 inches, wing 36, tail 34.

_Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Southern Antilles, and South America down to Argentine Republic.

There has been great confusion between this species and _M. tyrannulus_, from which the present bird may be distinguished by the absence of the rufous edgings to the inner webs of the rectrices.

Examples of _M. ferox_ are in the British Museum from Punta Lara (_Durnford_), Mendoza (_Weisshaupt_), and Buenos Ayres (_Haslehurst_).

168. MYIARCHUS ATRICEPS, Cab.

(BLACK-HEADED TYRANT.)

+Myiarchus atriceps+, _Cab. J. f. O._ 1883, p. 215.

_Description._--Above greenish olive, cap black; wings and tail blackish, more or less margined with brownish; beneath, throat and neck pale grey; abdomen and under wing-coverts pale sulphur-yellow; inner margins of wing-feathers fulvous; bill dark horn-colour; feet black: whole length 70 inches, wing 37, tail 35. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ N. Argentina, Bolivia, and S. Peru.

Schulz found this species as a summer visitor in Tuc.u.man.

169. EMPIDONOMUS AURANTIO-ATRO-CRISTATUS (d'Orb. et Lafr.).

(BLACK-AND-YELLOW-CRESTED TYRANT.)

+Tyrannus aurantio-atro-cristatus+, _d'Orb. Voy., Ois._ p. 312 (Corrientes); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 53; _Barrows, Bull.

Nutt. Orn. Club_, vol. viii. p. 202 (Entrerios). +Tyrannus aurantio-atro-cristatus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 453 (Rio Uruguay, Entrerios, Mendoza).

_Description._--Above cinereous; cap shortly crested, black, with a large vertical spot of bright yellow; wings and tail brownish black, wing-coverts and secondaries slightly edged with whitish; beneath as above but rather paler, and with a very slight yellow tinge on the crissum; bill and feet black: whole length 65 inches, wing 38, tail 31. _Female_ similar, but outer primaries less ac.u.minated.

_Hab._ Interior of Brazil, Eastern Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina down to Buenos Ayres.

Alcide d'Orbigny met with this fine species in Corrientes, and Dr.

Burmeister in Entrerios, and again near Mendoza. In the neighbourhood of Concepcion Mr. Barrows speaks of it as a "not very abundant summer resident, but one not easily overlooked, owing to its habit of perching on the topmost twig of any tree on which it alights, making forays from time to time, when tempted by its winged prey."

In the vicinity of Buenos Ayres likewise this Tyrant is not a common species. Like other birds of its genus it has an easy, rapid flight, and perches on trees or other elevated places, from which it occasionally makes a dash at pa.s.sing insects. The nest, as in _T. melancholicus_, is a very slight structure of slender sticks, and the eggs are four, parchment colour, and spotted at the large end with dark brown or chocolate. Mr. Barrows found a Cow-bird's egg in a nest of this species, which makes me think that it is less vigilant and warlike than _T.

melancholicus_.

170. TYRANNUS MELANCHOLICUS, Vieill.

(MELANCHOLY TYRANT.)

+Tyrannus melancholicus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 452; _Scl.

et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 53; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 178 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 608 (Salta); _Barrows, Bull.

Nutt. Orn. Cl._ vol. viii. p. 202 (Entrerios).

_Description._--Above grey with a slight greenish tinge; head with a concealed vertical crest of scarlet and yellow; lores and ear-coverts blackish; wings and tail brownish black with more or less of paler margins; beneath yellow, throat greyish white, breast more or less greyish, under wing-coverts pale yellow; bill and feet black; outer primaries attenuated; tail deeply forked: whole length 85 inches, wing 46, tail 40. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Mexico and Central and South America down to Buenos Ayres.

The violent and bold temper exhibited by most Tyrant-birds during the breeding-season, a quality from which is derived the name of the family, is perhaps carried to a greater degree in this species than in any other; and when one spends many days or weeks in the marshy, littoral forests, where the bird is most abundant, and hears its incessant distressful screams, the specific name _melancholicus_ does not seem altogether inappropriate; and that is the most that can be said of any specific name invented by science, and which does not merely describe some peculiarity of form or colour.