320 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Sp. Char. Bill very large and stout. Tail conspicuously forked. Wings long; the 

 first six quills attenuated abruptly, much longer than the seventh. Tertials much 

 developed, nearly intermediate in length between the longest primaries and the shortest 

 secondary. Above, and on the sides of the head and neck, ash-gray, shaded in places 

 with brown, wliicli Ibrms the middle portion of each feather. Downy portion at the base 

 of each feather above light ash, then light brown, tipped and edged with darker ash-gray. 

 The mottled appearance is caused by the brown showing from under the feathers ; the 

 ear-coverts darker. A concealed colored patch on the crown, formed by the base of the 

 feathers, white before and behind, orange in the middle. Lower parts grayish-white, 

 tinged with ash across the breast, deepest anteriorly. Sides of the breast similar to, but 

 lighter than, the back. Under wing-coverts and axillars pale sulphur-yellow. The wings 

 brown, darker to the tips ; the secondaries narrowly, the tertials more broadly, edged with 

 dull white. Edges of the coverts paler. Alula dark brown. Tail similar in color to the 

 quills. Upper tail-coverts brown. Bill and feet black. Length, 8.00 ; wing, 4.65 ; tail, 

 4.00 ; tarsus, .76. 



Yuung. Lesser wing-coverts and upper tail-coverts distinctly bordered witli pale 

 ochraceous ; tail-feathers bordered all round with a deeper shade of the same. 2so 

 colored patch on the crown. 



Hab. South Carolina coast, accidental ; Florida Keys and West Indies ; Nicaragua ; New 

 Granada. Santa Cruz (Newton, Ibis I, 146, eggs) ; Carthagena, N. G. (Cass. P. A. N. S. 

 1860, 143); Cuba (Cab. -L III, 478, breeds; GtJSOL. Rep. 1865, 238, '' Mel. griseus") ; 

 Jamaica (Gosse, B. J. 169, breeds ; March, P. A. N. S. 1863, 287) ; St. Thomas (Cass. 

 P. A. N. S. 1860, 375); Sombrero (Lawr. Ann. N. T. Lye. VIII, 1864, 99, ''griseus"); 

 Greytown, Nicar. (Lawr. Ann. 183); Sta. Bartholemy (Sund. 1869, 584); Massachusetts 

 (Matnard, B, E. Mass. 1870, 124). 



Tliis species, thouci:h about the same size as the T. carolincnsis, is much 

 more powerfully built, the bill and feet being much stronger, the former 

 considerably longer than the head, and as large as that of Saurophagus 

 sulphuratiis, though less compressed. 



Specimens from Nicaragua and New Granada appear to be almost per- 

 fectly identical with those from Florida and the West Indies, differing only 

 in being just appreciably smaller, which, however, might be expected from 

 their more southern habitat. 



H.\BiTS. The Gray Kingbird — the Tipiry Flycatcher of Audubon, or Gray 

 Petchary of Jamaica — is, e.xcept in Florida, of scarcely more than occasional 

 occurrence within the limits of the United States. A single specimen has been 

 taken in Massachusetts. This was shot in Lynn, October 23, 1808, and was 

 in immature plumage. The bird was shot on a tree near one of the streets 

 of that city by ilr. Charles Goodall. Mv. Audulion also found these birds 

 quite common on tlie Florida Keys, almost e^■ery Key, however small, having 

 its pair. A pair was observed breeding in the college yard at Charleston, 

 S. C, by Dr. Bachman ; and for at least three years in succession they regu- 

 larly returned each year, and raised two broods in a season. This Flycatcher 

 is abundant in St. Croix, Cuba, Jamaica, and in the other West India Isl- 

 ands. In the first-named locality Mr. Alfred New-ton found it one of the 

 most conspicuous and commonest birds over the entire island. Its favor- 

 ite station, he states, was the top of the spearlike unexpaiided frond of a tall 



