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Tyrant-birds of Mexico. 
Tyrannidce which are found in the United States. My present 
object is to bring together the names of such as have occurred 
to me in several collections formed in Mexico, which I have 
lately examined, and such as have been recorded by other writers 
as found within the limits of the Mexican Confederation. 
I am at present inclined to divide the Tyrannidce into four 
subfamilies. 
1. Attilince } consisting of the few members of the genus Attila, 
Lesson (including Dasycephala, Sw.), and their allies, which seem 
to form a connecting link between the Formicariidce (with which 
they are arranged by Cabanis, Burmeister, and others) and the 
Tyrannidce. They are, I believe, terrestrial in their habits. Their 
typical colouring is rufous. 
2. Tceniopterince —a very distinct division of the family, re¬ 
cognized as such by G. R. Gray, Bonaparte, and indeed almost 
all writers. They are eminently terrestrial in their habits, and 
most abundant in the southern portion of the South American 
continent, inhabiting the open pampas, seashores, and sides of 
the rivers. Their typical ptilosis is black and white, scarcely 
one olive-green species being found amongst them. The sexes 
are often differently coloured in this group. 
3. Tyrannince , the most numerous group in species, embracing 
the typical wood-loving Tyrants, very varying in form when 
carefully studied, but nearly all clothed in the same olive-green 
and yellow dress, sometimes passing into rufous. The sexes in 
this division are, with but few exceptions, coloured alike. 
4. Platyrhynchince , a division formed by Dr. Cabanis for the 
wide-billed birds belonging to the genera Platyrhynchus , 
Todirostrum , &c., mostly of small size, and distinguished by the 
usual absence of rictal bristles, and the shorter wings and long 
and slender tarsi. They are, I believe, exclusively arboreal in 
their habits, and in colouring do not depart from the type of the 
Tyrannince 3 from which I am doubtful if they are really separable 
as a subfamily. 
Birds of all these four supposed subfamilies occur within the 
limits of the Mexican Confederation. I now proceed to notice 
those species of which I have myself seen Mexican specimens. 
