62 TYRANNID. 
section Tyrannine of the Family. Writers on North-American birds assign to it a 
similar position, but Mr. Sclater considers Sayornis to belong to the South-American 
Fluvicoline ; but he employs Cabanis’s name Hmpidias for E. fuscus (=. phoebe), and 
places it at the other end of the Family after Wyiarchus. We do not see our way to 
following this arrangement, and prefer to place Sayornis near Myiarchus and Empidonax 
rather than with the strictly terrestrial Fluvicoline. At the same time we admit that 
Sayornis and Ochtheca have characters in common. 
Sayornis in its wide sense contains three groups of species—one consisting of S. saya, 
the type of the genus, the second S. nigricans and two other species, S. aquatica and 
S. cineracea, the third S. phebe. All these species frequent places near streams of 
water, the group of S. nigricans being especially partial to river-banks, where they sit on 
stones on or close to the margin and take their insect food from near the surface of the 
water. All the species have similar nesting-habits and lay white or slightly spotted 
eggs. 
Sayornis saya has a somewhat flattened bill, rather broad at the base ; the culmen is 
nearly straight for most of its length and then curves suddenly to form the terminal 
maxillary hook ; the nostrils are covered with strong bristles and the rictal bristles are 
also very fully developed ;. the tarsi are short and the feet feeble; the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 
primaries are nearly equal and longest in the wing, the Ist = 6th; the tail is very 
slightly forked, = $ wing, < 4 tarsus. 
1. Sayornis saya. 
Muscicapa saya, Bp. Am. Orn. i. p. 20, t. 2. f. 38 (1825) °. 
Tyrannula sayii ?, Sw. Orn. Draw. t. 70°. 
Sayornis sayus, Baird, Mex. Bound. Surv., Zool., Birds, p.9°; Dresser, Ibis, 1865, p. 478 * ; Sumi- 
chrast, Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H.i. p. 557°; Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. B. ii. p. 847°; 
Lawr. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 257; Sennett, Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv. v. p. 404°; 
Perez, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. ix. p. 154°. 
Sayornis saya, A. O. U. Check-list N.-Am. B. p. 233°°; Ridgw. Man. N. Am. B. p. 836%. 
Theromyias sayi, Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein. ii. p. 68. 
Tyrannula pallida, Sw. Phil. Mag. new ser. i. p. 367”. 
Sayornis pallida, Scl. P. Z.S. 1857, p. 204", 1859, p. 366; Cat. Am. B. p. 200%; Cat. Birds 
Brit. Mus. xiv. p. 8277; Dugés, La Nat. i. p. 141 ™. 
Griseo-fusca ; capite summo et tectricibus supracaudalibus obscurioribus ; cauda nigricante; alis fuscis, 
tectricibus majoribus et secundariis extrorsum sordide griseo limbatis: ventre et crisso pallide cinna- 
momeis ; subalaribus pallide cervinis: rostro et pedibus nigris. Long. tota 6°5, ale 4:0, caudee 3:2, rostri 
a rictu 0°8, tarsi 0°8. (Descr. exempl. ex urbe Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. NortH America, western portion from the plains to the Pacific™, Texas 4 8.— 
Mexico, Nuevo Larido and Topochico (Ff. B. Armstrong); Caretas, La Mula, 
Chupadero in the State of Chihuahua (W. Lloyd), Santa Isabel, Espia (Kennerly 3), 
Plains of San Luis Potosi (Richardson), Tablelands (Bullock 1%), Guanajuato 
(Dugés '®), valley of Mexico(le Strange), Hacienda Eslava, Culhuacan, Mexicalcingo, 
