54 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



TYRANNUS MELANCHOLICUS CHLORONOTUS Berlepsch 

 LICHTENSTEIN'S KINGBIRD 

 HABITS 



The normal range of this subspecies is from southern Veracruz, 

 Mexico, southward to Colombia, Venezuela, and the lower Amazon 

 Valley in Brazil. But, strangel}' enough, there seem to be no records 

 of its occurrence in any part of the Southern United States; and 

 still more strangely, its inclusion in our Check-list is based on two 

 widely separated records of occurrence in Maine and on Vancouver 

 Island, far remote from its normal habitat. Arthur H. Norton 

 (1916) reported: "On October 31, 1915, Mr. George Oliver observed 

 this stranger near his house in Scarborough, and secured it for the 

 collection of the Portland Society of Natural History. Mr. Oliver 

 said that it was seen the day before it was taken, and was thought 

 to have been a shrike. Upon reaching the identification given, it 

 was sent to the United States National Museum, where it was con- 

 firmed by Mr. H. C. Oberholser, and Mr. Kobert Kidgway. The 

 bird was a> young male, in very good condition. * * * It should 

 be recalled in connection with this waif that two very intense 

 tropical cyclones visited the United States, one in August, the 

 other in September, 1915." 



The second specimen "was collected at French's Beach, Renfrew 

 District, Vancouver Island, in February 1923 by J. G. French." 

 This bird was identified by Maj. Allan Brooks, through the interest 

 of J. A. Munro; and it was suggested that "it may have strayed so 

 far north through the medium of a steamer" (Kermode, 1928). 



A. J. van Rossem (Dickey and van Rossem, 1938) says that, in 

 El Salvador, it is a "common resident of open or semiwooded country 

 in the Arid Lower Tropical Zone. The species is most numerous 

 on the coastal plain and in the lower foothills and only rarely 

 straggles to an elevation of 4,500 feet. * * * Lichtenstein's king- 

 birds are generally distributed over open country everywhere in the 

 lower levels and may, locally, be very common indeed. Such places 

 as Colima and Divisadero, where much of the terrain is tree-dotted 

 agricultural land, are eminently suited to their needs, and they were 

 very numerous in both localities. They are much less common in 

 wooded areas such as Lake Olomega and Puerto del Triunfo, where 

 their spheres of activity are necessarily limited to clearings or 

 waterfronts." 



Nesting. — The same observer says that "the nests differ greatly 

 from the bulky, padded structures of the northern species. One 

 found at Zapotitan on June 12, 1912, was placed six feet from the 



