122 TYRANNIDJ3. 



extending south to Buenos Ayres. Like the Kingfisher, it haunts the 

 water-side and is found nowhere else. It has a shy, retiring disposition, 

 concealing itself in the close thickets overhanging a stream, so that one 

 does not often see it, notwithstanding its conspicuous white plumage. 

 When disturbed it emits a series of low ticking notes, or darts swiftly 

 out from the thicket, showing itself for a moment over the water before 

 disappearing once more into its hiding-place. 



D'Orbigny says it makes a purse-shaped nest, of slender twigs, moss, 

 and feathers neatly interlaced, and lays four white eggs, spotted at the 

 large end with brown. 



121. ARUNDINICOLA LEUCOCEPHALA (Linn.). 

 (WHITE-HEADED TYRANT.) 



Arundinicola leucocephala, cTOrb. Voy., Ois. p. 334 (Corrientes). 



Description. Black ; whole head and neck and a patch on the flanks white ; 

 bill horn-colour, base of lower mandible white ; feet black ; whole length 5-0 

 inches, wing 2-5, tail 1-8. Female above cinereous ; front and sides of head 

 whitish ; tail black ; beneath white, flanks and under wing-coverts cinerascent. 



Hab. Colombia and southwards to Argentina. 



This species, which is of wide distribution, was met with in Corrientes 

 by d'Orbiguy. 



122. ALECTRURUS TRICOLOR, Vieill. 

 (COCK-TAILED TYRANT.) 



Alectomrus tricolor, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 43. 



Description. Above black, rump greyish ; sides of the head, scapularies, lesser 

 wing-coverts, and outer margins of secondaries white ; tail black, outer rectrix 

 on each side produced, expanded, fan-shaped ; below white, patch on each side 

 of the breast (forming an incomplete collar) black ; bill horn-colour ; feet black : 

 whole length 7'2 inches, wing 2-8 ; tail, outer rectr. 2-5, middle rectr. 1'5. 

 Female : above brown, rump and lesser wing- coverts pale ; beneath dirty white, 

 sides of breast brown. 



Hab. S. Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentine Republic. 



This species generally resembles the one next described, and has, like 

 it, a black, white, and grey plumage. But the tail, although strange, is 

 constructed on a different pattern. The total length of the bird is five 

 and a half inches, the tail being only two and a half. The two outer 

 tail-feathers have remarkably stout shafts, with broad coarse webs, and 





