BIRDS — TYRANNINAE CONTOrUS R ICHARDSONll. 
189 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
Sex and 
age. 
Locality. 
When collected 
Whence obtained. 
Length. 
Extent. 
Wing. 
Remarks. 
1949 
942 
5910 
7205 
7200 
O 
s 
May 6, 1843 
June —,1855 
June —,1854 
7.50 
7.50 
7.75 
13.25 
12.75 
13. 
4.33 
Iris brown and yellow, bill black. 
John Xantus de Vesey.. 
CONTOPUS RICHARDSONII, Baird. 
Short-legged Pewee. 
Tyrannula richardsonii , Sivainson, F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 146 ; plate. 
Muscicapa richardsonii, Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 299 ; pi. 434. 
Tyrannula phoebe, Bon. List. 1838, 24. 
Muscicapa phoebe, Audubon, Synopsis, 1839, 42.— Ib. Birds America, I, 1840, 219 ; pi. 61, (not of Latham.)' 
Tyrannus phoebe, Nuttai.l, Man. I, 2d ed. 1840, 319. 
Tyrannus atriceps, D'Orbigny, (fide G. R. Gray.) 
Sp. Ch. — General appearance of C. virens. Bill broad. "Wings very long and much pointed ; considerably exceeding the 
tail ; second quill longest ; third a little shorter ; first shorter than fourth, and about midway between distance from second to 
fifth, (.60 of an inch.) Primaries 1.20 inches longer than secondaries. Tail moderately forked. Above dark olive brown, 
(the head darker) the entire breast and sides of head, neck, and body of a paler shade of the same, tinging strongly also the 
dull whitish throat and chin. Abdomen and under tail coverts dirty pale yellowish. Quills and tail dark blackish brown ; the 
secondaries narrowly, the tertials more broadly edged with whitish. Two quite indistinct bands of brownish white across the 
wings. Lower mandible yellow ; the tip brown. Length, 6.20 ; wing, 3.65 ; tail, 3.10. 
Haft.— High central dry plains to the Pacific ; Rio Grande valley, southward to Mexico ; Labrador, (Audubon.) 
This species has a very close relationship to C. virens, agreeing with it in general shape of 
wings and in color. The wings are, however, still longer and more pointed ; the primaries ex- 
ceeding the secondaries by nearly 1.25 inches. The proportions of the quills are nearly the 
same in hoth ; the primaries too are similarly a little emarginated or attenuated towards the 
end. The tail is rather more deeply forked ; the feathers hroader. The bills are similar ; the 
feet are larger and stouter. 
The general colors are almost precisely the same. The outer primary, however, lacks the 
decidedly white margin. The under parts are much darker anteriorly, the entire breast bein°- 
nearly a uniform olive brown ; but little paler than the back ; the throat, too, in some speci- 
mens, being scarcely paler. There is little or none of the pale sulphur yellow of C. virens on the 
abdomen, and the under wing coverts and axillaries are much darker olivaceous. In G. virens 
the middle line of the breast is always paler than the sides, or at least the connecting space is 
short. 
The lower mandible is generally yellow ; in a few specimens, however, it is quite dusky, 
especially on its terminal half. 
The young bird has the darker head and broader light edgings, with the ferruginous tino- e 
usually seen in young of the Tyrannulas. 
This appears to be the species figured by Audubon as Muscicapa richardsonii, based probably 
on Eocky mountain or Columbia river specimens received from Mr. Townsend, (No. 962, 2042 
&c.) The T. richardsonii of Swainson, however, differs in the proportions of the wings, &c. 
