190 



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



and in some other points appearing more nearly allied to ^S*. fuscus. Not to multiply synonyms 

 unnecessarily, however, I have concluded to adopt the name. The discrepancies in the propor- 

 tions of the quills may have been caused by their incomplete growth during the moulting 

 season. Richardson's description answers better than the figure, which, with the other on the 

 same plate, is wrongly colored. Bonaparte committed a mistake (in which he was followed by 

 Audubon and Nuttall) in referring this bird to the Muscicapa phoebe of Latham, Index Orn. 

 II, 1790, 489. This is certainly the S. fuscus, as shown by the references, and the statement 

 that the outer tail feather has the outer web white, which applies only to fuscus. 



List of specimens. 



CONTOPUS VIRENS, Cabanis. 



Wood Pewee. 



Muscicapa virens, Linn. Syst Nat. 1,1766,327. — Gmelin, Syst. Nat. 1,1788,936. Latham, Index Orn. — Licht. 



Verz. 1823, 563.— Nuttall, Man. I, 1832, 285.— Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 93 : V, 1839, 425 ; 



pi. 115.— Ib. Synopsis, 1839, 42.— Ib. Birds Amer. I, 1840, 231 ; pi. 64.— Giraod, Birds L. 



Island, 1844, 43. 

 Muscicapa querula, Vieillot, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 68 ; pi. xxxix, (not of Wilson.) 

 Muscicapa rapax, Wilson, Am. Orn. II, 1810, 81 ; pi. xiii, f. 5. 

 Tyrannula virens, Rich, App. Back's Voyage. — Bonap. List, 1838. 

 Myiobius virens, Gray. 



Tijrannus virens, Nuttall, Manual, I, 2d ed. 1840, 316. 

 Conlopus virens, Cabanis, Journal fiir Ornithologie, III, Nov. 1855, 479. 



Sp. Ch. — The second quill longest ; the third a little shorter ; the first shorter than the fourth; the latter nearly .40 longer 

 than the fifth. The primaries more than an inch longer than the secondaries. The upper parts, sides of the head, neck, and 

 breast, dark olivaceous brown, the latter rather paler, the head darker. A narrow white ring round the eye. The lower part^ 

 pale yellowish, deepest on the abdomen ; across the breast tinged with ash. This pale ash sometimes occupies the whole of 

 the breast, and even occasionally extends up to the chin. It is also sometimes glossed with olivaceous. The wings and tail 

 dark brown ; generally deeper than in S. fuscus. Two narrow bands across the wing, the outer edge of first primary and of the 

 secondaries and tertials dull white. The edges of the tail feathers like the back ; the outer one scarcely lighter. Upper mandible 

 black, the lower yellow, but brown at the tip. Length, 6.15 ; wing, 3.50 ; tail, 3.05. 



Hab. — Eastern North America lo the borders of the high central plains ; south to New Granada. 



The young of the year has the colors duller, edges of the upper feathers paler, the white 

 of the wing tinged with ferruginous ; the lower mandible more tinged with black. The bill 



