152 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



tail-feathers and a narrow edging at their tips, white. Bill dark; 

 lower mandible white at its base; legs dark. " Irides brown" (Peale). 



Hab. — Samoan Islands, Specimen in Nat. Mus. "Washington City. 



This is a species described by Mr. Peale as above, from a single 

 specimen, not in good order, in the collection of the Expedition. This 

 specimen, now before us, is evidently that of a young bird, and very 

 probably not in the plumage assumed at maturity. It is not, there- 

 fore, without hesitation, that we have admitted it into our present 

 volume as a species hitherto undescribed, especially as it shows a near 

 relationship to the species alluded to in the article immediately pre- 

 ceding [R. alhiscapa). 



The colors of the superior parts, in the present bird, are very nearly 

 the same as those of R. alhiscapa, but the under parts are of a color 

 nearly uniform with the upper. In the last character it differs from 

 any specimen of that species that we have seen. There is a distinct 

 trace of white on the throat and ears, and the shafts of the tail-feathers 

 are white as in R. alhiscapa. The bill in the present bird is slightly 

 the larger. 



The figure in the Zoological Atlas of the Voyage of the Astrolabe 

 and Zelee, cited above, may represent this bird, but it is without any 

 of the white markings. 



Mr. Peale mentions this species as " found, in the month of October, 

 inhabiting shady forests in the Island of Upolu, and not so familiar 

 nor noisy as the New Zealand Fan-tails." 



The figure in our plate is of the natural size, and represents the only 

 specimen in the coUecticm of the Expedition. 



5. Genus TYRANNUS, Cuvler. Rc-gne Animal, I, p. 343 (1817). 



1. Tyrannus verticalis {Say). — The Arkansas Fly-catcher. 

 Muscicapa verticalis, Say, Long's Exp. to Rock. Mount. II, p. GO (1823). 



Bonap. Am. Orn. I, Plate II ; And. B. of Am. Plate CCCLIX, fig. 

 1, 2 ; oct. ed. I, Plate LIV. 



