280 Mr. Swainson on the 



Gray, beneath white; wings and tail black; base of the primaries, and tips of 



the secundaries and tail-feathers white ; tarsi elongated. 

 Guiraru Nheengeta Braziliensis. Raii Syn. p. 1 66. 

 Le Guiraro ? Sonnini, vol. 13. p. 324. 

 Le Cotiuga gris ? Brisson, Ois. 2. p. 353. 



This singular species is clothed in a plumage so closely re- 

 sembling that of the American Mocking-bird, that even a pro- 

 fessed naturalist would not immediately recognise the difference : 

 This similitude is even carried on, in some degree, to the bill ; 

 which, although sufficiently depressed at the J)ase, to remove 

 every doubt as to the true affinities of the bird, is yet compressed 

 on the sides, by which it assumes somewhat of that narrow form 

 observable in the thrushes. 



Size of a blackbird. The upper plumage, and also the breast and 

 flanks beneath are of a cinereous grey; the throat and body beneath 

 being white : across the front, from eye to eye, is a white line ; be- 

 tween the eye and rictus the colour is blackish ; and below the ears is a 

 lengthened black stripe which joins the under mandible. The wings are 

 rather long ; the covers and scapular quills blackish with gray margins ; 

 the spurious quills entirely black ; the primaries are also deep black with 

 a band of pure white at their base ; this band widens as it approaches the 

 lesser quills, two of which are pure white, tipt with black ; the rest being 

 black, tipt with white. The two first quill-feathers are notched, and 

 obsoletely pointed. The tail is moderate, half concealed by the covers, 

 and slightly forked : but in old birds (the ends of the feathers being 

 frequently worn) it appears even. The colour is deep black, broadly tipt 

 by grayish- white. Tarsi and toes lengthened and black ; claws acute. 



Inhabits Brazil. 



Total length 9, bill liV» wings 5 J, tail 4, depth of the fork |-, tarsi 1, 

 middle claw T %. 



I have been unusually minute in describing this bird, as a 

 good deal of doubt and confusion has crept into its systematic 

 history; three other birds having been mistaken for what ap- 

 pears to me the Guiraru Nheengeta Braziliensis of the old authors. 

 The original description of Marcgrave is indeed very concise, and 

 no doubt has been the original source of error. It is, however, 

 probable, that this early writer intended to record the bird here 

 described, since no other that I am acquainted with from Brazil, 

 will so nearly fall in with his account. M. Sonnini is the only 

 naturalist who seems to have had the same bird in view, or who 

 has alluded to the form of the tail, which he says is even (carrce.) 



