128 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



Family COLOPTERID^. The Flycatchers. 

 Sub-Family Tyrannin^. — Tyrant Flycatchers. 



Bill broader than high at the base, much depressed, more or less triangular; cul- 

 men nearly as long as the head, or shorter, straight to near the tip, then suddenly 

 bent down into a conspicuous hook, with a notch behind it; tip of lower jaw also 

 notched; commissure straight to near the notch; gonys slightly convex; nostril8 

 oval or rounded in the anterior extremity of the nasal groove, and more or less 

 concealed by long bristles which extend from the posterior angle of the jaws along 

 the base of the bill, becoming smaller, but reaching nearly to the median line of the 

 forehead; these bristles with lateral branches at the base; similar bristles mixed in 

 the loral feathers and margining the chin ; tarsi short, generally less than the middle 

 toe, completely enveloped by a series of large scales which meet near the posterior 

 edge of the inner side, and are separated either hy naked skin or by a row of small 

 scales. Sometimes a second series of rather large plates is seen on the posterior 

 face of the tarsus; these, however, usually on the upper extremity only; basal joint 

 of middle toe united almost throughout to that of the outer toe, but more than half 

 free on the inner side; outer lateral toe rather the longer; wings and tail variable, 

 first quill always more than three-fourths the second ; the outer primaries sometimes 

 attenuated near the tip. 



TYRANNUS, Cuvibb. 



Tyrannus, Cuvier, Lemons Anat. Comp., 1799-1800 (Agassiz). 



Tail nearly even, or moderately forked, rather shorter than the wings; the 

 feathers broad, and widening somewhat at the ends; wings long and pointed; 

 the outer primaries rather abruptly attenuated near the end, the attenuated portion 

 not linear, however; head with a concealed patch of red on the crown. 



TYRANNUS CAROLINENSIS. — Baird. 

 King-bird; Bee Martin. 



Lanius tyrannus, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 136. This belongs to the Cuban 

 T. matittinus, according to Bonaparte. 



Muscicnpa tyrannus (Brisson ?), Wilson. Am. Cm., I. (1808) 66. Aud. Cm. 

 Biog., L (1832) 403; V. (1839) 420. 76., Birds Amer., L (1840) 204. 



Description. 



Two, sometimes three, outer primaries abruptly attenuated at the end ; second 



quill longest, third little shorter, first rather longer than fourth, or nearly equal; 



tail slightly rounded, above dark bluish-ash; the top and sides of the head to 



beneath the eyes bluish-black; a concealed crest on the crown, vermilion in the 



