16 
SWALLOW-TAILED FLYCATCHER. 
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 Tijrannus, and the present bird in Jlluscicapa; where¬ 
as, 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 King¬ 
bird, the type of the sub-genus. 
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 elon¬ 
gated 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 white at their bases. The three exterior feathers 
on each side, are of a delicate pale rosaceous colour, on a con¬ 
siderable part of their length from the base. The external one is 
five inches and a half long; the second and third gradually decrease 
in length, but the fourth is disproportionately shorter, and from 
this feather there is again a gradual decrease to the sixth, which 
is little more than two inches long. 
The female of the Swallow-tailed Flycatcher is probably very 
similar to the male; but the colours of the young bird are much 
less vivid, and the exterior tail feathers are much shorter than 
those of the adult. 
