MYTIARCHUS. 91 
4. Myiarchus cinerascens. 
Tyrannula cinerascens, Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. v. p. 121 (1851) *. 
Myjiarchus cinerascens, Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 121 (partim) ’; Scl. P. Z. 8S. 1859, p. 384°; 
Coues, Pr. Ac. Phil. 1872, p. 69*; Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 288°; Bull. U.S. 
Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 28°; Ferrari-Perez, Pr. U. 8S. Nat. Mus. ix. p. 155”. 
Myjiarchus crinitus var. cinerascens, Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. B. ii. p. 337°. 
Tyrannula mexicana, Kaup, P.Z. 8. 1851, p. 51°. 
Myiarchus mexicanus, Baird, B. N. Am. p. 179, t. 5”. 
Myionax mexicanus, Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein. ii. p. 747". 
Myiarchus pertinax, Baird, Pr. Ac. Phil. 1859, p. 303». 
M. magistro similis, sed abdomine pallidiore, rostro minore, rectrice caude extima utrinque in pogonio interno 
fere ad rhachidem (preter apicem) fulva. (Descr. maris ex Atlixco, Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. Nortu America, Western States from the Rocky Mountains westward, and from 
Wyoming southwards, Lower California’.—Muxico 9 11, Yecera in Sonora (W. Lloyd), 
Mazatlan (Grayson *®, Forrer), Topo Chico in Nuevo Leon (Ff. B. Armstrong), San 
Juan del Rio (Rébouch), Huehuetlan (Ferrari-Perez), Atlixco (Boucard & F. D.G.), 
Oaxaca (Boucard*, Fenochio), 'Tapana, Sta. Efigenia, Tehuantepec city (Sumi- 
chrast ®°) ; GuatemaLa, Duefias?, Barranco Hondo, Chuacus (0. S. & F. D. G.). 
This species is distinguished from its near ally Jf. magister chiefly by its smaller 
bill, the paler colour of the abdomen, and the distribution of the fylvous in the tail- 
feathers, which in most cases occupies the greater part of the inner web of the outer 
feather, and diverging from the shaft as it approaches the tip leaves the tip itself 
dark. But the variation in the amount of the dark tip in different individuals is very 
considerable. In the young bird in the first plumage the distribution is somewhat 
different, as the rufous colour runs close to the shaft to the end of the feather; this 
fact gives us a clue to unravel the complicated synonymy of this species. We have 
already stated that Tyrannula mexicana of Kaup is the smaller-billed of the two birds 
described by him in 1851, that with the larger bill being the preceding species. 
We have two specimens before us which have been compared with Kaup’s type in 
the Darmstadt Museum, one of these is from Atlixco, the other from Oaxaca; they 
differ from the typical YZ. cinerascens in that the tip of the inner web of the outer tail- 
feather is rufous, but with the young of I. cinerascens before us we have little doubt 
that in their next moult their tails would be normally coloured. It therefore comes to 
this, that Baird was perfectly right when he placed Tyrannulus cinerascens of Lawrence 
as a synonym of 7. mexicana of Kaup; but the latter name has been so differently 
applied and in so many ways by various authors for the last thirty years, during which 
the title I. cinerascens has acquired increasing stability, that we at least have no hesita- 
tion in employing MW. cinerascens here instead of the ill-defined IZ. mexicanus, which 
may or may not have a slight priority. 
M. cinerascens is a bird of the south-western portions of the United States, where it 
is asummer visitor. Dr. Coues found it abundant in Arizona, arriving late in April and 
12* 
