TITYRA. 



tions of two, with the specific characters of a third species, equally new and 

 interesting, the figure of which will appear in our Second Number. 



The whole of the group have hitherto been found, with one exception 

 only, in the wild and retired forests of South America, frequenting the deep- 

 est recesses, and enjoying the complete solitude which every where pervades 

 them. Their food is chiefly the larger species of insects ; sometimes, when 

 they are apparently pressed by hunger, consisting of weak or young birds, and 

 small reptiles. The Cayenne Shrike, with whose habits we are most familiar, 

 is by far the most fierce and rapacious, more frequently attacking such of the 

 weak species of its own race as may occasionally occur in its vicinity, and in 

 its general manners more closely resembling the true Lanii. The other spe- 

 cies, according to their size and strength, vary in their habits of rapacity. 

 T. Cuvieri, Vieilloti, and castanea, differ in a slight degree from the type, by 

 having the bill more depressed, and the toes longer and more slender in pro- 

 portion. From their weakness, they are unfitted for seizing a strong prey, and 

 are more nearly allied to the stronger Tyranni and Mascicapidce. Psaris 

 m'ger, Swainson, possesses a metallic lustre on many parts of the plumage ; 

 and having the graduated tail of the American Thanmophili, might by some 

 be excluded from the present genus. We, however, concur with Mr Swain- 

 son's views, and prefer retaining it in the present group ; but in our mono- 

 graph of the specific characters of the known species, we have placed it at 

 the extremity. 



The colours of their plumage are chaste or sombre, the tints generally 

 blended into each other, and possessing none of that brilliancy so frequent 

 among South American species. The young birds do not attain their adult 

 plumage, until after their first or second moult. Previous to this period, 

 they retain that of the female, or have the colours and markings less vivid and 1 

 distinct. 



SYNOPSIS SPECIERUM. 



TITYRA. 



1. T. cayana.— T. supra grisea, capite, remigibus caudaque nigris, subtus griseo-alba. 



Tityra cinerea, Vieilht, Gal. des Ois. PI. 134. 



Psaris cayanus, Cuvier, Reg. An. torn. i. p. 341. 



Lanius cayanus, Lhinceus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 304. 



Cayenne Shrike, Latham, Gen. Hist. ii. p. 85. — Shaw's Zoology, vol. vii. p. 297 



Long. 8 poUices. 



Hab. In Cayena et America meridionali. 



In museis plerisque. 



