Of this brilliant-plumaged little Flycatcher, we have, we regret to say, but little information. It has been known as a Mexican bird since 1827, when specimens were sent to Europe for the first time by Mr. William Bullock, a Fellow of the Linnæan Society of London, who was then resident in Mexico, but has as yet been obtained once only within the limits of the United States. It was received in a collection made in Texas, and containing many interesting species, by Mr. J. P. Giraud, an accomplished and active ornithologist of the city of New York, and was by him first introduced as entitled to a place in the ornithological fauna of this country. Since that period no one of the several American naturalists who have visited Texas, has had the good fortune to meet with it.
This bird was first described by Mr. Swainson, in the Philosophical Magazine, new series, I. p. 367, but little or nothing more is said of it than on the authority of Mr. Bullock, it is stated to be an inhabitant of the table lands, and that the specimens in his collection were obtained in the vicinity of Valladolid. Mr. Bullock himself, in his interesting book, “Six Months in Mexico,” does not allude to it.
Nor is there, in a more elaborate paper, in which this bird is described by the Baron de la Fresnaye, in Guerin’s Magazine of Zoology (as cited below), a much more explicit or satisfactory history. Its habits, it is stated, resemble those of the Tits (Genus Parus), and it has a feeble cry like the syllables pe-pe-pe. Mons. de la Fresnaye’s specimens were from Jalapa, and were killed in August.
This bird belongs to a group of Flycatchers of small size, of which various species inhabit the warmer parts of America, and are represented in the North only by the Redstart (Setophagha ruticilla), a common and well known bird of the United States. Nearly all the species are remarkable for the gay and showy colors of their plumage; but the bird now before us is certainly entitled to precedence on such foundation for pretensions. It is not equalled by any other species of its group, and is in fact one of the most beautiful of the smaller birds of North America.
Our figures, which represent adult males, are about two-thirds of the size of life, and were drawn from specimens obtained in Mexico, now in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy.
DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.
Genus Cardellina. Bonaparte, Cons. Av. p. 312.
General form rather lengthened and slender; bill moderate, with several pairs of slender bristles at the base of the upper mandible; wings rather long, with the third quill longest; tail long; tarsi and toes moderate, rather slender, the latter rather short; colors bright and showy. Two American birds only are classed in this genus.
Cardellina rubra. (Swainson.) Setophaga rubra. Swainson, Philos. Mag. I., new series, p. 367. (1827.) Sylvia miniata. La Fresnaye, Guerin’s Mag. de Zool., 1836 (not paged). Parus leucotis. Giraud, Sixteen new species N. A. Birds, 1841 (not paged). “Sylvia argyrotis. Illiger.” Bonap. Cons. Av. p. 312.
Form. Bill somewhat subulate, sharp; wing with the third quill longest; tail long, emarginate; tarsi slender; toes rather short; claws fully curved, compressed, acute.