150 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
COCK-TAILED TYRANT 
Alectrurus tricolor 
Above black, rump greyish; sides of the head, scapularies, lesser 
wing-coverts, and outer margins of secondaries white; tail black, 
outer rectrix on each side produced, expanded, fan-shaped ; below 
white, patch on each side of the breast (forming an incomplete 
collar) black; bill horn-colour; feet black; length 7.2 inches. 
Female: above brown, rump and lesser wing-coverts pale; beneath 
dirty white, sides of breast brown. 
THIs species generally resembles the one next de- 
scribed, and has, like it, a black, white, and grey 
plumage. But the tail, although strange, is constructed 
on a different pattern. The total length of the bird 
is five and a half inches, the tail being only two and 
a half. The two outer tail-feathers have remarkably 
stout shafts, with broad coarse webs, and look like 
stumps of two large feathers originally intended for 
a bigger bird, and finally cut off near their base and 
given to a very small one. In the male these two 
feathers are carried vertically and at right angles to 
the plane of the body, giving the bird a.resemblance 
to a diminutive cock; hence the vernacular name 
Gallito, or Little Cock, by which it is known. 
I have not observed this species myself, but Azara 
has the following paragraph about its habits: “‘ The 
male sometimes rises slowly and almost vertically, 
with tail raised, and rapidly beating its wings, and 
looking while ascending in this way more like a 
butterfly than a bird; and when it has reached a 
height of ten or twelve yards, it drops obliquely to 
