Todd — Studies in the Tyrannidce. 209 



Myiarchus tyrannulus var. phoeocephalus Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, 



Hist. N. Am. Birds, II, 1874, 330 (diag.). 

 Myiarchus fer ox phceocephalus Ridgway, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 50, IV, 



1907, 612 (diag.; references).— Bangs and Noble, Auk, XXXV, 1918, 



455 (Bella vista and Perico, Peru). — Oberholser, Proc. Indiana Acad. 



Sci., 1918, 306 (diag.; ref. orig. descr.; range; crit.). 



Description.^Ahove dull deep olive with a grayish cast, and obscurely 

 mottled with indistinct dusky centers to the feathers; pileum neutral gray, 

 becoming blackish posteriorly from increasing dark centers to the feathers ; 

 hindneck and sides of head neutral gray; wings dusky, the lesser coverts 

 like the back, the middle and greater coverts margined and tipped with 

 light grayish olive; the inner primaries and the secondaries margined 

 externally with the same color, paling into whitish or pale yellowish on 

 the tertiaries; remiges with inner margins of pale buffy white; tail dusky 

 brown with narrow paler outer margins and indistinct pale tip ; throat and 

 breast light neutral gray; rest of under parts Martius yellow or sulphur 

 yellow, brightest anteriorly, the crissum and under wing-coverts paler 

 "iris dark brown" (Taczanowski) ; bill and feet blackish (in skin). 



Measurements. — Male (five specimens): wing, 89-97 (average, 92.5) 

 tail, 87-94 (90.5); bill, 19.5-22 (20.5); tarsus, 21.5-23.5 (23). Female 

 (five specimens): wing, 83-92 (88.5); tail, 83-91 (87.5); bill, 18.5-20 (19.5) 

 tarsus, 20-23 (21.5). 



Range. — Tropical Zone of western Ecuador, reaching into extreme north- 

 western Peru. 



Remarks. — Myiarchus phceocephalus was originally described from speci- 

 mens collected by Fraser at Babahoyo, Ecuador, and it has since been 

 found at sundry other localities on the Pacific slope of Ecuador and northern 

 Peru. In its distinctly grayish pileum, centered with black, it possesses 

 a character not shared by any other South American form of this group, 

 and which by comparison appears to be of specific value. In the coloration 

 of its tail an affinity to M. apicalis is suggested, but in any case we are 

 unable to agree with those authors who would make it a race of M. fer ox. 

 It is known to range northward along the coast as far as Esmeraldas at 

 least, while M. fer ox panamensis occurs at Tumaco, Colombia, less than one 

 hundred miles away, neither form showing any signs of intergradation at 

 these extremes. According to Stolzmann it is always found in pairs, and is 

 the only tyrant flycatcher in which he had remarked the habit of raising 

 the tail, thus reminding one strongly of a mockingbird. It has also the 

 habit of raising the feathers of the crest, making the head appear almost 

 black. 



Specimens examined. — Ecuador: Esmeraldas, 1; Coast of Manavi, 2; 

 Santa Rosa, Oro, 3; Puna Island, 4; Loja, 1; Chone, Manavi, 2; Daule, 

 Guayas, 1; Bahia, Manavi, 1; unspecified, 2. Peru: Bellavista, 2; Perico, 

 2; Palotillas, Piura, 3; Chilaca, Piura, 1. Total, 25. 



Myiarchus atriceps Cabanis. 



Myiarchus sp. Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1874, 678 

 (Cchachupata, Peru). 



