LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN FLYCATCH- 

 ERS, LARKS, SWALLOWS, AND THEIR ALLIES 



ORDER PASSERIFORMES (FAMILIESICOTINGIDAE, TYRANNIDAE, 

 ALAUDIDAE, AND HIRUNDINIDAE) 



By Arthur Cleveland Bent 



Taunton, Mass. 



Order PASSERIFORMES 

 Family COTINGIDAE:lCotmgas 



PLATYPSARIS AGLAIAE ALBIVENTRIS (Lawrence) 

 XANTUS'S BECARD 



HABITS 



Xantus's becard belongs to the western Mexican race of the rose- 

 throated becards, which are widely distributed in Mexico and Central 

 America. The species has been split up into some seven or eight 

 subspecies, and there are several closely related species in Jamaica and 

 South America. Our bird (P. a. alhivcntris) is much paler than 

 the type race, both above and below, the under parts being largely 

 pure white or nearly white. The type race (P. a. aglalae)^ one of 

 the dark races, extends its range into the valley of the lower Rio 

 Grande, in Tamaulipas, Mexico, and may some day be taken on our 

 side of the river in southern Texas. (PL 1.) 



Xantus's becard has been taken only once within the limits of the 

 United States and niust be regarded as a very rare straggler in the 

 mountains of southern Arizona, where "VV. W. Price (1888) estab- 

 lished our only record for the species, of which he writes : 



On June 20, 1888, I secured an adult male, in breeding plumage, of this 

 species in the pine forests of the Huachuca Mountains, at an elevation of about 

 7500 feet, and seven miles north of the Mexican boundary. I am certain there 

 were a pair of these birds, as I heard their very peculiar notes in different 

 places at the same time, but the locality being so extremely rouf^h and broken 

 1 only secured the one above recorded. Several times while collecting at high 

 altitudes I have heard bird notes that I thought were these, but they were al- 



