ROCKY-MOUNTAIN ANTCATCHER. 
11 
is of a dusky-brownish, slightly undulated with pale, tinted with 
dull ferruginous on the top of the head and superior portions of 
the back. The sides of the head are dull whitish, with a broad 
brown line passing through the eye to the commencement of the 
neck. The chin, throat, and breast are whitish, each feather beins 
marked by a longitudinal line of light-brown. The belly is white; 
and the flanks are slightly tinged with ferruginous. The primaries 
are entirely destitute of undulations or spots; the tail coverts are 
pale, each with four or five fuscous bands; the inferior tail coverts 
are white, each being bifasciate with blackish-brown. The tail is 
nearly two inches long, rounded, broadly tipped with ferruginous- 
yellow, and having a narrow black band before the tip; the 
remaining part of the tail is of the same colour with the wings, 
and is obsoletely banded, these bands being more distinct on the 
two middle feathers, which are destitute of the black and yellowish 
termination; the exterior feather is dusky at tip, marked by four 
yellowish-white spots on the exterior, and by two larger ones on 
the inner web. 
The specimen of the Rocky-Mountain Antcatcher we are 
describing is a male, shot in the month of July, and possibly not 
adult; as it is the only one brought by Major Long’s party, we 
cannot determine the extent or nature of the variations the species 
may undergo from age, sex, or season. 
The note of this bird is peculiar, resembling the harsh voice of 
the Terns. It inhabits the sterile country bordering on the river 
Arkansaw, in the neighbourhood of the Rocky Mountains, where 
it is frequently observed hopping on the ground, or flitting among 
the branches and weather-beaten, half-reclining trunks of a species 
of Juniper; when it flies among the crooked limbs of this tree it 
spreads its tail considerably, but was never seen to climb. They 
were generally observed in small associations of five or six indi¬ 
viduals, perhaps composing single families. 
