FORK- TAILED FLYCATCHER 
263 
This species is fourteen inches long-, its tail measuring 
nearly ten ; the extent, from the tip of one wing to that of the 
other, is fourteen inches. The bill is somewhat more slender 
and depressed at base than that of the kingbird, and, as well 
as the feet, is black. The irides are brown. The upper part 
of the head, including the cheeks and superior origin of the 
neck, is velvet black. The feathers of the crown are some- 
what slender, elevated, and of a yellow orange-colour at base, 
constituting a fine spot, not visible when they are in a state of 
repose ; the remaining part of the neck above, and the back, 
are greyish ash ; the rump is of a much darker greyish ash, 
and gradually passes into black, which is the colour of the su- 
perior tail-coverts ; the inferior surface of the body, from the 
base of the bill, as well as the under wing and under tail-co- 
verts, is pure white. The wings are dusky, the coverts being 
somewhat lighter at tip and on the exterior side ; the first 
primary is edged with whitish on the exterior web, and is 
equal in length to the fourth ; the second primary is longest ; 
the three outer ones have a very extraordinary and profound 
sinus, or notch, on their inner webs, near the tip, so as to ter- 
minate in a slender process. The tail is very profoundly 
forked, the two exterior feathers measuring nearly ten inches 
in perfect individuals, whilst the two succeeding are but five 
inches long, and the other feathers become gradually and pro- 
portionally shorter, until those in the middle are scarcely two 
inches in length ; the tail is, in fact, so deeply divided, that if 
the two exterior feathers were removed, it would still exhibit 
a very forked appearance. All the tail feathers are black, the 
exterior one on each side being white on the remarkably nar- 
row outer web, and on the shaft beneath, for nearly three- 
fourths of its length. 
I cannot agree with those who say that the female is distin- 
guished from the other sex by wanting the orange spot on the 
head, as I think we may safely conclude, from analogy, that 
there is hardly any difference between the sexes. The young 
birds are readily recognised, by being destitute of that spot, as 
well as by having the head cinereous, instead of black ; the 
