320 



U. 8. P. E. R, EXP, AND STIBVEY*— ^ZOOLOGY — GENERAL REPORT, 



This genus has a much narrower and more depressed bill than Ptihgonys. The feet are 

 similar, but^with more curved claws, and with no feathers on the upper part of the tarsus. The 

 first quill is muchlarger ; indeed it can scarcely be called spurious ; the fourth, fifth, and sixth 

 are successively a little longer than the third ; the outer primaries not acuminate. The tail is 

 much broader, widening to the tip ; it is rounded, or graduated, instead of forked. The head has 

 a crest of narrow linear feathers, instead of a short, broad, and full one. 



, CICHLOPSIS NITBNS, B a i r d . 



Ptihgonys nitens, Swainson, Anim. in Menag. 2J Cent. 1838, 285. — ^Bonap. Consp. 1850, 335. — Heermann, J. A. N. 



Sc. II, Jan. 1853, 263.— Cassin, Illust. I, 1854, 169 ; pi. zxix. 

 LepHras galeatus, Lesson, Rev. Zool. 1849, 4 . 

 " Hypothymys nitens, Lafr. " 



Sp. Ch. — Head witli an elongated occipital crest. Exposed portion of spurious quill about half the length of the second, 

 which equals the secondaries ; sixth quill longest. Tail graduated. Male throughout of a uniform lustrous black, glossed with 

 green. Inner webs of the primaries white, except at the base, tips, and margins. Female, ash color, paler beneath ; the quifls, 

 wing, and lower tail coverts and outer tail feathers edged with whitish ; rest of tail feathers blackish. Length of male, 7.75 ; 

 wing, 3.90; tail, 4.30. 



Hob. — Valley of Gila and southern Colorado to upper Rio Grande ; west to Fort Tejon ; east to Coahuila, Mexico. 



There is some difference in the size of specimens, one from the Colorado desert being con- 

 siderably smaller than 3964 from Coahuila. The female has the crest rather less conspicuous 

 than the male. 



List of specimens. 



■*i 



MYIADESTES, Swain son. 



Myiadestes, Swainson, Naturalist's Library. Flycatchers, 1838. Type Mnscicapa armillata, Vieill. 



Ch. — Head not crested. Bill rather narrower than the length of the culmen ; much depressed ; somewhat attenuated at 

 the end ; lateral outline rather concave. Tarsi without feathers above or scutellae ; shorter than the middle toe. Hind toe 

 rather shorter than the outer lateral toe, which barely reaches the base of the middle claw. Tail and wings very long; the 

 former shorter, quite deeply forked, but the outer lateral feather abruplly graduated, and a little longer than the innermost ; 

 the feathers all broad at the base, and tapering to the tip. Spurious primary nearly one-fourth the longest, (third ;) the second 

 a quarter of an inch less than the longest. 



