Volume I Part 31 (1/2)

(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_).