CONTOPUS. 81 
Long. tota 7:0, ale 4:4, caude rect. med. 2°5, rect. lat. 2°85, tarsi 0°6, rostri a rictu 0°95. (Deser. maris 
ex Sierra Madre, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Mus..nostr.) 
Hab. Norta America, from Canada southwards.—MExico, Rio de Papagaio in Guer- 
rero (Mrs. H. H. Smith), Hacienda de las Escobas (f. B. Armstrong), Sierra Madre 
above Ciudad Victoria (W. B. Richardson), State of Vera Cruz (Sumichrast ?°), 
Cuesta de Misantla (17. Trujillo), Orizaba (Botteri 18), Cordova (Sailé 1°), La Parada 
(Boucard), Cacoprieto (Sumichrast >); GuatemaLa (Skinner !°), Coban, Duefias 
(0. S. & F. D. G.); Costa Rica (Hoffmann), Irazu (Rogers); Panama, Calobre ¢ 
(Arcé).—CoLomBia; Peru}. 
It is possible that Lichtenstein’s Muscicapa mesoleuca, described as “ Graugriinlich, 
mit weisslicher Kehle und dergl. Bauch,” is meant for this species; and, if so, the name 
has one year’s priority over Swainson’s Tyrannus borealis. But, though the specific 
name is suggestive, the description is very meagre, so that we are not disposed to displace 
the specific name Jorealis in favour of mesoleucus * for this Contopus. Mr. Sclater’s use 
of the same name in 1859 was made without reference to Lichtenstein’s prior application 
of it. Contopus mesoleucus of the later author is certainly a synonym of C. borealis. 
Though this species is rare in the Atlantic States of North America, it enjoys a wide 
summer range in the northern districts from Massachusetts westwards, and throughout 
the South-western States to the Mexican border. We have no record of it along the 
western slope of the Mexican cordillera north of the State of Guerrero nor on the 
plateau, but it is found abundantly on the flank of the mountains facing the Atlantic, 
and thence southwards to the Pacific on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. In Guatemala it 
occurs in the mountainous parts, and in similar districts of Costa Rica and the State of 
Panama, and also in South America as far as Northern Peru. The nest of C. borealis 
is usually placed near the extremity of a horizontal branch of a pine or other tree, and 
is composed of strips of bark, roots, mosses, &c. loosely put together to form a shallow 
structure. The eggs are creamy buff, spotted, usually in a more or less distinct ring 
around the larger end, with deep rusty brown or chestnut and purplish grey. 
b’. Abdomen in medio haud album haud ochracewm. 
2. Contopus musicus. 
Tyrannula musica, Sw. Phil. Mag. new ser. i. p. 368°. 
Contopus pertinax, Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein. ii. p. 72”; Scl. Cat. Am. B. p. 231°; Cat. Birds Brit. 
Mus. xiv. p. 235‘; Salv. Ibis, 1866, p. 203°; Cat. Strickl. Coll. p. 314°; Sumichrast, Mem. 
Bost. Soc. N. H. i. p. 5577; Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. B. ii. p. 356°; Henshaw, Rep. 
Geogr. Surv. West 100th Mer. v. p. 351°; Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. il. p. 287"; Bull. 
U.S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 27"; Coues, Key N. Am. B. ed. 2, p. 489"; F.-Perez, Pr. U.S. 
Nat. Mus. ix. p.155"°; Ridgw. Man. N. Am. B. p. 337. 
* Elainea mesoleuca, Licht. Nomencl. p.17; Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein. ii. p. 60, from Montevideo, may also 
possibly refer to the same bird, wrongly attributed to Mexico. In Lichtenstein’s ‘Nomenclator’ Contopus 
borealis is called Myiarchus villicus. 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Aves, Vol. II., March 1889. 11 
