CHOCOLATE TYRANT 135 



Noseda as a naturalist, if we did not remember that 

 Gilbert White at the same period was trying to 

 prove the hibernation of Swallows in England, The 

 whole of the discussion appears in the Birds of 

 Paraguay, under the description of the Chopi ; and 

 Noseda is there allowed to state his own case ; after 

 which the better observer, Azara, gives five ob- 

 jections to the theory, any one of which would be 

 sufficient to demolish it. 



CHOCOLATE TYRANT 



Myiotheretes rufiventris 



Above and below smoky grey, clearer on the head and breast; 

 belly, crissum, and under wing-coverts bright rufous ; wings black, 

 inner secondaries bright chestnut terminated with white, outer 

 secondaries black, tipped with white; wing-coverts grey, margined 

 with white ; tail black, outer margins of external pair of rectrices 

 and tips of all whitish ; two outer primaries emarginated ; bill and 

 feet black ; length 9.5 inches. Female similar, but outer primaries 

 not emarginated. 



THE Tyrant Birds (Tyrannidas) are a family of in- 

 sectivorous birds peculiar to America, They are the 

 Flycatchers of the New World, and in very many 

 of the smaller species are curiously like the Old 

 World Flycatchers in appearance and habits. But 

 structurally they are not nearly related to them. 

 They belong to the sub-order Olygomyodae, the 

 Passerine birds which are (or ought to be) songless. 



