28 MR. p. L. SCLATER ON THE GENUS TYRANNUS. [Jail. 20, 



1. Remarks on some Species of the Genus Tyrannus. By 



P. L. ScLATEK, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the 



Society. 



(Plate III.) 



Mr. Ridgway has lately contributed to the 'Proceedings of the 

 United-States National Museum ' an excellent paper on the genus 

 Tyrannus^. As I have a good series of examples of the species of 

 this genus in my collection, and have paid some attention to the subject 

 I beg leave to offer the following remarks on Mr. Ridgway's paper. 



Mr. Ridgway's views as to the limits of the genus Tyrannus 

 coincide very nearly with mine as expressed in my 'Catalogue of 

 American Birds' and in the ' Nomenclator Avium Neotropicalium.' 

 Mr. Ridgway allows 13 species of the genus Tyrannus, while Mr. 

 Salvin and I in the last-named work only recognized 1 1 . Mr. Ridg- 

 way's two additional species are Tyrannus apolites (Cab. et Heine) 

 and a supposed new species which he proposes to call Tyrannus lug- 

 geri. As regards the first of these, it was omitted from our list, 

 because it seemed probable that it might have been founded on a 

 young individual of one of the races of T. melancholicus . And after 

 again studying the original descriptions, I have no other reasonable 

 conjecture to offer on the subject. Concerning Tyrannus Ivygeri, 

 however, I can give some more certain information, Mr. Salvin 

 having received from Mr. Ridgway in exchange an example of this 

 species, which I now exhibit. As will be seen, Tyrannus luggeri of 

 Demerara is identical with the bird called in my collection Myio- 

 zetetes sulphureus (Spix)", and is, I think, better referred to the 

 genus Myiozetetes, though a somewhat aberrant member of it, than 

 to Tyrannus. 



There remain, then, 1 1 species of Tyrannus, which both Mr. 

 Ridgway and I acknowledge as veritable species of the genus ; and, 

 moreover, our names for them are fortunately the same, except as 

 regards Mr. Ridgway's T. carolinensis and T. dominicensis, which in 

 conformity with the Stricklandian Code I call T. jiipiri and T, gri- 

 seus. But I am more fortunate than Mr. Ridgway in having in 

 my collection examples of T. albigularis and 2'. niveigulai-is, two 

 species which are unknown to him. A few words upon these some- 

 what rare birds may be useful to Mr. Ridgway and to other ornitho- 

 logists. 



Tyrannus albigularis, Burm. Syst. Ueb. ii. p. 465, though most 

 nearly related to T. melancholicus, is, I think, quite a distinct spe- 

 cies. My example of it is an adult male, obtained by Natterer near 

 Goyaz in Brazil, in July 1823. At first sight the pure white tbroat 

 and want of any greenish tinge on the yellow breast render it easily 

 distinguishable from T. melancholicus. Above the plumages of the 

 two birds are more nearly similar, although the back of T. albigularis 

 is decidedly of a more yellowish olive. The tail (fig. 1), is also 



' " Descriptions of new Species and Eaces of American Birds, including a Syn- 

 opsis of the Genus Tyrannus, Cuvier. iiy Eobert Eidgway," Proc. U..S. Nat. 

 Mus. i. p. 166 (187y). 



\ Oat. Am. Birds, p. 220. 



