TYRANT-BIRDS. 471 



size with rather broad and depressed bills, among which are our common tyrant-fly- 

 catchers, pe\vees, etc., belonging to a number of genera, the distinctive marks of 

 which may be sought for in the special and formal text-books. We shall here only 

 point out a single form, the vermilion fly-catcher (Pyrocephalus rubineus), the noi-th- 

 ern race of which (mexicanus) is found over our southern border, because of the un- 

 usual and strongly marked sexual difference, and of the exquisite coloration of the 

 male, which is deep rosy vermilion, with a silvery white ear-patch, but chiefly on ac- 

 count of its musical voice, since it disproves the notion that the mesomyodian and 

 oligomyodian birds must necessarily be harsh screamers. Mr. W. H. Hudson has 

 given an interesting biography of the ' churinche,' as this species is called in South 

 America, from which \ve select the following relating to its song : " A few days after 

 their arrival the churinches pair, and the male selects a spot for the nest a fork in 

 a tree from six to twelve feet from the ground, or sometimes a horizontal bough. 

 This spot the male visits about once a minute, sits on it with his splendid crest ele- 

 vated, tail spread out, and wings incessantly fluttering, while he pours out a continu- 

 ous stream of silvery gurgling notes, so low they can scarcely be heard ten paces off, 

 and somewhat resembling the sound of water running from a narrow-necked flask, 

 but infinitely more rapid and musical. He is exceedingly pugnacions ; so that when 

 not fluttering on the site of his future nest, or snapping up some insect on the wing, 

 he is eagerly pursuing other male churinches, apparently bachelors, from tree to tree. 

 At intervals he repeats his remarkable little song, composed of a succession of 

 sweetly modulated metallic trills uttered on the wing. The bird usually mounts up- 

 ward from thirty to forty yards, and, with wings very much raised and rapidly vibrat- 

 ing, rises and drops almost perpendicularly half a yard's space five or six times, 

 appearing to keep time to his notes in these motions. This song he frequently utters 

 in the night, but without leaving his perch ; and it then has a most pleasing effect, as 

 it is less hurried and the notes seem softer and more prolonged than when uttered 

 by day." 



Still more flattened and broadened are the bills of the small species of Platyrhyn- 

 chus, which, besides, are remarkable for their extremely short tails, while the still 

 smaller species of Todirostrum have similar but excessively lengthened bills. 



Finally, as examples of the large and shrike-billed forms, the king-birds, may be 

 quoted our bee-martin (Tyranmis tyrannus), the case of which, in regard to its alleged 

 injuriousness in snapping the bees away as compared with its merits in defending the 

 farmer's chickens against the hawks, will soon come up for decision by the ornitho- 

 logical juries of this country. 



It would take us too far were we to go to relate the breeding habits of the differ- 

 ent tyrant-birds, but we may briefly touch upon an interesting point, viz., how much 

 the architecture of nearly allied birds may vary, as illustrated by the difference first 

 pointed out by Mr. H. W. Henshaw in the nests of the two small species of Empid- 

 onax, of Eastern North America, E. traillii and E. acadicus, which are so alike in 

 their external appearance that they have frequently been mistaken for each other 

 even by experts. Mr. Henshaw describes the former as follows: "Hempen fibres 

 compose the exterior or the bulk of the nest, while internally it is lined in true fly- 

 catcher style with fine grasses and a slight admixture of down from thistles ; the main 

 point of all, however, is its position in an upright fork, the small twigs that surround 

 it being made available to secure it more firmly in its place by being encircled with 

 the stringy fibres." The nest of the Acadian fly-catcher, on the other hand, " is dis- 



