188 U. S. p. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS — ZOOLOGY — GENERAL REPORT. 



invaluable list of genera and sub-genera of birds, by G. R. Gray, 1855, this section is left 

 without a name, with Muscicapa nunciola, Wils., ("Tyrannuln/usca") as type, and with Tyran- 

 nula, Sw., 1831, not of 1827, and Myiobius, Gray, 1847, not 1838, as synonymous. To this 

 section Cabanis has applied the name of Julanax, but in giving " Tyrannula nigricans" as the 

 type, his name becomes a synonym of Sayornis, Bonaparte. 



It is possible that, if Bonaparte has presented a conspectus of the Tyrants in the Ateneo 

 italiano or elsewhere, in 1854, or subsequently, he has not overlooked the present groups, but I 

 am unable to determine this point. It only remains for the jiresent to take the names of 

 Cabanis, as quoted, namely, Contopus for the short-legged group, with Muscicapa virens, L., as 

 type, and including also Muscicapa cooperi, Nuttall, Platyrhynchus cinereus, Spix, and Tyran- 

 nula ardosiaca, of Lafresnaye, and Empidonax for the other one. 



CONTOPUS BOKEALIS, Baird. 



Olive-sided Flycatcher. 



Tyrannus borealis, Sw. & Rich. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 141 ; plate. 



JVfi/ioiiius borealis, Gray, Genera, I, 248. 



Jtfiiscicapo cooperi, Nuttall, Man. 1,1832, 282.— Add. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 422: V, 1839, 422 ; pi. 174.— Ib. Synopsis, 



1839, 41.— Ib. Birds Amer. I, 1840, 212 ; pi. 58. 

 Tyrannus cooperi, Bonap. List, 1838. — Ncttall, Man. I, 2d ed. 1840, 298. 

 Contopus cooperi, Cabanis, Journal fiir Ornithol. Ill, Nov. 1855, 479. 

 Muscicapa inornata, Nuttall, Man. I, 1832, 282. 



Sp. Ch. — Wings long, much pointed ; the second quill longest ; the first longer than the third. Tail deeply forked. Tarsi 

 short. The upper parts ashy brown, showing darker brown centres of the feathers ; this is eminently the case on the top of the 

 head ; the sides of the head and neck, of the breast and body resembling the back, but with the edges of the feathers tinged with 

 grey, leaving a darker central streak. The chin, throat, narrow line down the middle of the breast and body, abdomen, and 

 lower tail coverts white, or sometimes with a faint tinge of yellow. The lower tail coverts somewhat streaked with brown in 

 the centre. On each side of the rump, generally concealed by the wings, is an elongated bunch of white silky feathers. The 

 wings and tail very dark brown, the former with the edges of the secondaries and tertials edged with dull white. The lower 

 wing coverts and axillaries greyish brown. The tips of the primaries and tail feathers rather paler. Feet and upper mandible 

 black, lower mandible brown. The young of the year similar, but the color duller; tlie feet light brown. Length, 7.50 ; 

 wing, 4.33 ; tail, 3.30 ; tarsus, .60. 



Hid). — Rare on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States. Not observed in the interior, except to the north . 

 Found in Greenland. (Reinhardt.) 



This large and powerful " Tyrannula" is eminent for the length of its wings, which reach 

 beyond the middle of the tail and the coverts to within a little more than an inch of the tip. 

 The primaries are considerably attenuated, and a little cut out on the inner web, towards the 

 end. The longest quill exceeds the secondaries by about 1.80 inches. The depth of fork in the 

 tail is nearly .30 of an inch. 



There is a very narrow edging of whitish to the first primary ; the outer web of the outer 

 tail feather is pale brownish towards the edge. 



Specimens sometimes have a little more yellow beneath than that described. In some western 

 skins the third quill is a little longer than the fourth. 



Hartlaub, in his list of the birds of Chile, quotes a Tyrannula cooperi, supposed to be identical 

 with the present species. If it be the bird described as Tyrannula cooperi by Kaup, it is totally 

 distinct and belongs to the genus Myiarchus, which see. 



