SWALLOW-TAILED FLYCATCHER. 87 
Mexico. Neither Latham, Gmelin, nor Vieillot, seem 
to have had an opportunity of examining' this bird, as 
they have evidently drawn on Buffon for what they 
have said relative to it. Hence it appears that the 
swallow-tailed flycatcher has never been obtained from 
the time of Button to the period of Major Long’s 
expedition to the unexplored region it inhabits. The 
present specimen, which is a fine adult male, was shot 
by Mr Titian Peale, on the 24th of August, on the 
Canadian fork of the Arkansaw river. 
Although this bird is very different from the fork- 
tailed flycatcher, yet, on acgpunt of the form of the tail, 
and the similarity of the common name, they are apt to 
be mistaken for each other, and, when both are 
immature, some caution is required to avoid referring 
them to the same species. Notwithstanding this simi- 
larity, some authors have placed the fork-tailed flycatcher 
in their genus Tyrannus , and the present bird in 
Muscicapa y whereas, from an inspection of the bills, it 
will at once be seen, that the latter would be still more 
properly placed in their genus Tyrannus , as the form 
of its bill is exactly the same with that of the kingbird, 
the type of the subgenus. 
The swallow-tailed flycatcher, when in full plumage, 
is eleven inches long. The bill and feet are blackish ; 
the irides are brown (red, according to authors.) The 
upper part of the head and neck is of a light gray ; the 
back and scapulars are dark cinereous, tinged with 
reddish brown ; the rump is of the same colour, but 
strongly tinged with black, and the superior tail-coverts 
are deep black ; the under part of the body is milk 
white, the flanks being tinged with red ; the inferior 
tail-coverts are pale rosaceous ; the wings are brownish 
black, the upper coverts and secondaries being margined 
externally and at tip with dull whitish ; the under 
wing-coverts are whitish rosaceous; the axillary feathers, 
above and beneath, are of a vivid scarlet colour. The 
tail is greatly elongated and excessively forked ; it is of 
a deep velvet black colour,, each feather having the 
terminal margin of a dull whitish tint, and the shafts 
