the ombu, which is planted in front of many of the farm houses, and tlience
takes short flights in pursuit of insects. From the remarkable structure of its
tail, the inhabitants of the country call it scissor-tail; a name very well applied
from the manner in which it opens and shuts the forked feathers of its tail. Like
all birds thus constructed, (of whicli the frigate bird offers a most striking
example), it has the power of turning very shortly in its flight, at which instant
it opens and shuts its tail, sometimes, as it appears, in a horizontal and sometimes
in a vertical plane. When on the wing it presents in its general appearance a
caricature likeness of the common house swallow {Hirundo rusticaj. The
.Muscivora, altliough unquestionably belonging to the family of Muscicapidas
manifests in its habits an evident relationship with birds of the fissirostral
structure.
S u b -G e n . PYROCEPHALUS, G o u l d .
M u s c ic a p a . Auct.
M u s c i p e t a . C u v .
T y r a n n u l a . Swa in.
Rostrum capile trevius, rectum, depressum, basi setis numerosis nigris obsessum ;
mandihula superiore emarginatà, inferiorem ohtegente ; naribus rotmidatis patulis.
Caput subcristatum. Alee longee ; remige prima secundum tertiamque longissimas
subeequalesfere ceequante. Tarsi mediocres, anticè scutellati; digitis lateralibus inee-
iqualibus, exteriore longiore. Cauda mediocris quadrata.
Mr. Gould observes, that “ the males of nearly all the members of this group
(which may be considered either as a distinct genus or sub-genus of Myiobius),
have the crown of the head and greater part of the under surface scarlet. Four
species were obtained,—Pyrocepkalusparvirostris, (Gould), and Muscicapa coronata,
(Auct.), may he taken as types.
I . P y r o c e p h a l u s p a r v i r o s t r i s . Gould.
Plate VI.
Le Churrinche, Azara. No. 177.
P . suprà fuscus ; capite et subtus nitidepuniceis ; rectricibus exterioribus tectricumque
et secundariorum apicibus griseo-marginatis.
Long. tot. 5 ^ unc.; aUe, 13,%; caiidce, 2-^-, t a r s i , r o s t .
Crown of the head, crest, and all the under surface, bright scarlet ; the remainder