TYRANNID^E. 



This small Tyrant-bird is a summer visitor in the Plata district ; it is 

 shy and solitary; frequents woods and plantations, and perpetually 

 utters, like the English Redstart, its sorrowful monotonous plaint, as it 

 flits about in the upper foliage of the trees. 



The nest is placed in a bush or low tree, and built of various soft 

 materials compactly woven together, and the inside lined with feathers 

 or vegetable down. The eggs are four, pale cream-colour, with large, 

 well-defined spots of dark red. 



The total length of this species is less than five inches. The prevail- 

 ing colour of the plumage is rufous brown on the upper, and whitish 

 brown on the under surface. Beneath the loose feathers of the crown 

 there is a concealed spot of orange-red. 



162. PYROCEPHALUS RUBINEUS (BodcL). 

 (SCARLET TYRANT.) 



Pyrocephalus rubineus, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 51 ; Hudson, P. Z. S. 1872, 

 p. 808 ; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 178 (Buenos Ayres) ; Gibson, Ibis, 1880, 

 p. 27 (Buenos Ayres) ; Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. CL vol. viii. p. 201 

 (Entrerios). Pyrocephalus parvirostris, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 456 

 (Entrerios). 



Description. Above very dark cinereous, crested head and body below scarlet ; 

 bill and feet black : whole length 5'2 inches, wing 2-9, tail 2-3. Female above 

 paler cinereous, below white ; breast striated with cinereous ; belly more or less 

 rosy red. 



Hab. S. America, from Colombia down to Buenos Ayres. 



It is in vain, I think, to attempt to make more than one species out 

 of this widely-spread bird, though specimens from the west coast are 

 usually smaller. 



The Scarlet Tyrant is about five inches and a half long; the neck, 

 back, wings, and tail are black, all the rest of the plumage the most 

 vivid scarlet imaginable. The loose feathers of the crown, which form 

 a crest, are especially brilliant, and seem to glow like a live coal amidst 

 the green foliage. Beside this bright Tyrant-bird even the Rainbow 

 Tanagers look pale, and the ft Jewel Humming-birds " decidedly sad- 

 coloured. It is not strange, therefore, that in South America, where it 

 has a very wide range, it is a species well known to the country people, 

 and that they have bestowed on it many pretty names, most of which 

 have reference to its splendid scarlet colour. In the Argentine Republic 

 it is usually called Churinche, from its note, also Federal and Fuegero ; 

 in other countries Sangre de Toro (bull's blood), and, better still, Sangre 



