Tyrant-birds of Mexico. 4:57 



Tyrannida which are found in the United States. My present 

 object is to bring together the names of such as have occurred 

 to me in several collections formed in Mexico^ which I have 

 lately examined, and such as have been recorded by other writers 

 as found within the limits of the Mexican Confederation. 



I am at present inclined to divide the Tyrannidm into four 

 subfamilies. 



1. Aitilime, consisting of the few members of the genus Attila, 

 Lesson (including Dasycephala, Sw.), and their allies, which seem 

 to form a connecting link between the Formicariida (with which 

 they are arranged by Cabanis, Burmeister, and others) and the 

 Tyrannida. They are, I believe, terrestrial in their habits. Their 

 typical coloui'ing is rufous. 



2. Taniopteri/Ke — a very distinct division of the family, re- 

 cognized as such by G. R. Gray, Bonaparte, and indeed almost 

 all writers. They are eminently terrestrial in their habits, and 

 most abundant in the southern portion of the South American 

 continent, inhabiting the open pampas, seashores, and sides of 

 the rivers. Their typical ptilosis is black and white, scarcely 

 one olive-green species being found amongst them. The sexes 

 are often differently coloured in tliis group. 



3. TyrannincB, the most numerous gi-oup in species, embracing 

 the typical wood-loving Tyrants, very varying in form when 

 carefully studied, but nearly all clothed in the same olive-green 

 and yellow dress, sometimes passing into rufous. The sexes in 

 this division are, with but few exceptions, coloured alike. 



4. Platyi-hynchiruE, a division formed by Dr. Cabauis for the 

 wide-billed birds belonging to the genera Platyrhynchus, 

 Todirostrum, &c., mostly of small size, and distinguished by the 

 usual absence of rictal bristles, and the shorter wings and long 

 and sleiider tarsi. They are, I believe, exclusively arboreal in 

 their habits, and in colouring do not depart from the type of the 

 Tyrannina, from which I am doubtful if they are really separable 

 as a subfamily. 



Birds of all these four supposed subfamilies occur within the 

 limits of the Mexican Confederation. I now proceed to notice 

 those species of which I have myself seen Mexican specimens. 



