176 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



long, circular at the top, but compressed at the lower 

 extremity, and ending in a sharp point* It is com- 

 posed entirely of soft bits of dry yellow sedge, ce- 

 mented together with gum so smoothly that it looks 

 as if made in a mould* The eggs are two, oval, and 

 dull creamy white, sometimes with a ring of colour 

 at the large end. 



BIENTEVEO TYRANT 



Pitangus bolivianos 



Above brown ; head black ; front, superciliaries, and line round 

 the nape white ; large vertical crest yellow, tipped with black ; wings 

 and tail brown with rufous margins ; beneath sulphur-yellow, inner 

 margins of wing- and tail-feathers pale rufous; bill and feet black; 

 length 9 inches. 



THE Bienteveo is in its habits the most interesting 

 member of the Tyrannine family. It would be 

 difficult to find two species more dissimilar in dis- 

 position than are the Silverbill, already described, 

 and the Bienteveo ; the former being like an auto- 

 maton, having only a few set motions, gestures, and 

 instincts, while the other is versatile in an extra- 

 ordinary degree, and seems to have studied to 

 advantage the various habits of the Kestrel, Fly- 

 catcher, Kingfisher, Vulture, and fruit-eating Thrush ; 

 and when its weapons prove weak it supplements 

 them with its cunning. How strange it is that these 

 two species, mentally as widely separated as the 



