180 Mr. O. V. Aplin on the 



flying from one to anotlier^ or catching flies like a true Fly- 

 catcher, with glancing flight. Also hawks insects from the 

 orange-trees and wire fences in the quinta. Has a single, 

 rather low, sweet note. 



50. Pyrocephalus rubineus. Scarlet Tyrant. 



A summer visitor and not uncommon on the edge of the 

 monte and about quintas. The first of these brilliant little 

 birds I saw was close to Montevideo on the 15th October. 

 At Sta. Elena it appeared on the 24th, and next day I saw 

 one in the quinta, where they usually breed. The last I saw 

 was on the 6th April — a young male moulted into nearly 

 adult dress — but the adults, I think, had disappeared quite 

 early in March. The male is a pretty sight on a dazzling 

 clear morning, against a background of sauce and tala, as it 

 hovers and sails in the air with a dancing, waving flight, 

 uttering its short, faint, sweet strain, " itereeee, itei'eeee, iter- 

 tee," over and over again. 



51. Myiarchus ferox. Fierce Tyrant. 



1 observed this bird on several occasions in the monte of 

 the Rio Negro, but not elsewhere. It was usually sitting on a 

 branch at some height from the ground at the edge of an 

 open space or on the river-bank. ^ 



52. Tyrannus melancholicus. Melancholy Tyrant. 

 Noticed first on the 17th November in the quinta, but 



not again until January, when I shot a female on the 24th, 

 and a male on the 28th, in some thin monte by the Sauce. 

 It is uncommon, but breeds, for on 6th February I shot an 

 old and a young male just flown, from a family party in the 

 Monzon monte. The alarm-note is a low, shrill, weak " tit- 

 tit-tit-tit-tit." It likes to sit on a tree-top and to sail thence 

 to another with its very light buoyant flight. 



-+ 53. MiLVULUS TYRANNUS. Scissor-tailcd Tyrant. 



Summer visitor, and common. According to Mr. Burgess 

 it had just arrived when I reached Sta. Elena on 19th 

 October, and it was fairly common a day or two after. They 

 are pugnacious, and on two meeting in the air they poise 



