Volume I Part 24 (1/2)

_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).