336 CHARACTERS OF SETOPHAGA PICTA. 



White Shouldered Flycatcher, Aluscicapa leucomus, Gir. Sixt. Sp. Tex. B. 1841, not paged, 



folio 23, pi. 6, f. 1. (See Scl. PZS. 1855, 66.) 

 Muscicapa tricolor, Licht. " Mas. Berol. 1 ' 

 Painted Fly-snapper, Tayl. 1. c. 

 Painted Flycatcher, Authors. 



HAD. Mexico and Central America. North into Arizona. 



CH. SP. c 2 Nigra^ pectore media el abdomine coccineis ; pal- 

 pebris, specula atari rectricibusque lateralibus albis. 



$ $ : Lustrous black ; middle of the breast and belly rich carmine-red ; 

 eyelids, a large patch on the wings formed by the greater and middle coverts, 

 broad edging of inner secondaries, edging of inner webs of primaries toward 

 the base, lining of wings, nearly all the outer tail-feather, and a diminishing 

 space on the next two or three, together with the crissum, white. Bill and 

 feet black. Length, 5 inches ; wing and tail, each 2 ; tarsus, ; bill, -f . 

 The 9 is not particularly different from the $ , though rather less richly 

 colored. In poor plumages, the black is not so lustrous, the red of the belly 

 less extensive and of a more bricky-red tone, while the white of the wings 

 and tail is more restricted. I have not seen the very young bird. It is 

 described by Henshaw as follows : " Upper parts dull black, only slightly 

 lustrous ; white nearly as in the adult, vie, a spot on the lower eye lid, a 

 patch on the wing, including the greater and middle coverts, the outer edge 

 of first primary only, the outer edges of the secondaries, the inside of wings, 

 axillars, crissum, tibia3, outer tail feathers except at base, and a diminishing 

 space on the second and third, white." 



A LTHOUGH the Painted Flycatcher was included among 

 f\- the birds of this country by Baird in the Pacific Eailroad 

 Eeport, and also in that of the Mexican Boundary, this was 

 done on the strength of its occurrence in New Leon, Mexico, 

 close to our border, where the bird was found by Lieut. D. N. 

 Couch, with many others of special interest to American orni- 

 thologists. It will undoubtedly be found in the lower valley of 

 the Eio Grande ; but it has not yet been taken over our border, 

 excepting in Arizona, where it was discovered by Lieut. Charles 

 Bendire, United States Army, near Tucson, April 4, 1872, as 

 first recorded by Mr. Eidgway in the "American Naturalist" 

 for July, 1872, p. 436, and as noted by me about the same time 

 in the "Key", p. 110. As I shortly afterward said, in the peri- 

 odical just mentioned (June, 1873, p. 325), the same observer 

 saw it: again about the middle of September, 1872, when it ap- 

 peared to be retiring into Mexico from its presumed summer 

 home in the mountain fastnesses of the Territory. 



During the two following years, in 1873 and 1874, Mr. Hen- 

 shaw found it common in different portions of Southern Arizona, 

 where it unquestionably breeds, as he secured specimens in 

 July, August, and September. This ornithologist has left 



