INSESSORES. 155 



and is very probably when adult of a different shade of red. From 

 Peru. 



9. Genus TAENIOPTERA, Bonaparte, Gray's Gen. of Birds, I, p. 241 (1847). 



1. Taenioptera obscura {Gmelin). 



Muscicapa ohsciira, Gm. Syst. Nat. I, p. 945 (1788), Lath. Ind. Orn. II, p. 470. 



Atlas, Ornithology, Plate IX, fig. 3. Adult male. 



Form. — Compact and rather strong ; head broad ; aperture of the nos- 

 tril large; membrane conspicuous ; wing with the first quill short ; 

 fourth and fifth longest and nearly equal ; tail moderate, wide, with 

 its feathers pointed and mucronate ; tarsi long, rather slender ; scales 

 in front obscure. 



Dimensions. — Total length (of skin), about seven inches; wing, four 

 inches ; tail, three inches ; tarsus, one and a half inches. 



Colors. — Male. Entire plumage above, light reddish-brown or 

 snuff color, most distinct on the back, and tinged with cinereous on 

 the forehead. Under parts light ashy, palest on the flanks and abdo- 

 men ; under tail-coverts yellowish-white. Quills and tail-feathers light 

 brown, the former fulvous at their bases, and the shafts of the latter, 

 on their under surfaces, white. Bill dark, tarsi lighter. Female. 

 Quills bright fulvous at their bases, and edged on their outer webs 

 with the same color. Under parts paler than in the male, white on 

 the abdomen, outer feathers of the tail lighter. 



Hab. — Sandwich Islands. Specimen in Nat. Mus. Washington, and 

 Mus. Acad. Philadelphia. 



This remarkable species appears to have been lost sight of by 

 modern ornithologists, and the specimen in the present collection, and 

 another in that of the Philadelphia Academy, are the only ones that 

 have come under our notice. The male described above, which is in 

 the collection of the Expedition, is in excellent plumage and preser- 

 vation, and differs from the female in the more uniform and deeper 



