Perspicilla leucoptera, Swains., Nat. Libr. x. Flyc. p. 105, Pl. 9.
Fluviola perspicillata, D’Orb. & Lafr., Mag. de Zool. 1837, p. 59.
Le Clignot ou Lichenops, Comm., Sundev.
Le Bec d’argent, Azara, No. 228.
This bird belongs to the sub-genus, Perspicilla, of Mr. Swainson; but as Mr. G. R. Gray has pointed out that Commerson had previously considered it the type of his genus, Lichenops, we have been induced to prefer the latter as the oldest name. It is common in the neighbourhood of the Plata, and across the Pampas, as far as Mendoza on the eastern foot of the Andes; it has not, however, crossed those mountains and entered Chile. It usually sits on the top of a thistle, and like our common fly-catchers (Muscicapa grisola), takes short flights in pursuit of insects; but does not, like that bird, return to the same twig. It feeds, also, occasionally on the turf: in the stomach of some which I opened, I found Coleopterous insects, chiefly Curculionidæ. Beak, eye-lid, and iris, beautiful primrose yellow.
2. Lichenops erythropterus. Gould.
Plate IX.
L. suprà nigrescenti-brunneus, plumis rufo-marginatis; primariis secundariisque castaneis, apicibus pogoniæque externæ dimidio apicali brunneis; gutture corporeque subtus cervinis; pectore brunneo-marginato.
Long. tot. 6 unc.; alæ, 3; caudæ, 2⅜; tarsi, 1; rostri, ⁹⁄₁₂.
All the upper surface and tail blackish brown, each feather margined with rufous; primaries and secondaries reddish chesnut, their tips and their external webs for half their length from the tip, brown; tertiaries, greater and lesser wing-coverts dark brown, each feather margined with reddish buff; throat, and all the under surface, fawn colour; the chest spotted with brown; base of the bill, and chiefly of the lower mandible, as well as the iris, bright yellow; eye-lid, blackish yellow; feet, dark brown.