62 TYRANNID-E. 



section Tyranninas of the Family. Writers on North-American birds assign to it a 

 similar position, but Mr. Sclater considers Sayornis to belong to the South-American 

 Fluvicolinse ; but he employs Cabanis's name Empidias ior E.fuscus {=E. phosbe), and 

 places it at the other end of the Family after Myiarchus. We do not see our way to 

 following this arrangement, and prefer to place Sayornis near Myiarchus and Empidonax 

 rather than with the strictly terrestrial Fluvicolinse. At the same time we admit that 

 Sayornis and Ochthceca have characters in common. 



Sayornis in its wide sense contains three groups of species — one consisting of S. saya, 

 the type of the genus, the second S. nigricans and two other species, S. aquatica and 

 S. cineracea, the third S. phoshe. All these species frequent places near streams of 

 water, the group of S. nigricans being especially partial to river-banks, where they sit on 

 stones on or close to the margin and take their insect food from near the surface of the 

 water. All the species have similar nesting-habits and lay white or slightly spotted 

 eggs. 



Sayornis saya has a somewhat flattened bill, rather broad at the base ; the culmen is 

 nearly straight for most of its length and then curves suddenly to form the terminal 

 maxillary hook ; the nostrils are covered with strong bristles and the rictal bristles are 

 also very fully developed ; the tarsi are short and the feet feeble ; the 2nd, .3rd, and 4th 

 primaries are nearly equal and longest in the wing, the 1st = 6th ; the tail is very 

 slightly forked, := f wing, < 4 tarsus. 



1. Sayornis saya. 



Muscicapa saya, Bp. Am. Orn. i. p. 20, t. 2. f. 3 (1825) '. 



Tyrannula sayii ?, Sw. Orn. Draw. t. 70 ^. 



Sayornis sayus, Baird, Mex. Bound. Surv., Zool., Birds, p. 9 ' ; Dresser, Ibis, 1865, p. 473 * ; Sumi- 



chrast, Mem. Bost. See. N. H. i. p. 557'; Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. B. ii. p. 347 °; 



Lawr. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 25''; Sennett, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv. v. p. 404'; 



Perez, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. ix. p. 154°. 

 Sayornis saya, A. O. U. Check-list N.-Am. B. p. 233" ; Ridgw. Man. N. Am. B. p. 336 ". 

 Theromyias sayi, Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein. ii. p. 68 ". 

 Ty'rannula pallida, Sw. Phil. Mag. new ser. i. p. 367". 

 Sayornis pallida, Scl. P.Z. S. 1857, p. 204", 1859, p. 366"; Cat. Am. B. p. 200"; Cat. Birds 



Brit. Mus. xiv. p. 32 " ; Duges, La Nat. i. p. 141 ". 



Griseo-fusca ; capite summo et tectricibus supracaudalibus obscurioribus ; eauda nigricante • alis fuscis 

 tectricibus majoribus et secundariis extrorsum sordide griseo limbatis : ventre et crisso paUide cinna- 

 momeis ; subalaribus pallide cervinis : rostro et pedibus nigris. Long, tota 6-5, alse 4-0, caudse 3-2 rostri 

 a rictu 0-8, tarsi 0-8. (Descr. exempl. ex urbe Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 



Hah. North Ameeica, western portion from the plains to the Pacific i^, Texas ^ ^. 



Mexico, Nuevo Larido and Topochico {P. B. Armstrong) ; Caretas, La Mula, 

 Chupadero in the State of Chihuahua ( W. Lloyd), Santa Isabel, Espia {Kennerly 3), 

 Plains of San Luis Potosi (Sichardson), Tablelands (Bullock ^^), Guanajuato 

 [Duges ^% valley of Mexico{le Strange), Hacienda Eslava, Culhuacan, Mexicalcingo, 



