Hab. Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and N. Argentina.
Examples of this wide-ranging species, obtained by Döring in Tucuman, are referred by Dr. Cabanis to his subspecies “latirostris,” which seems to us hardly distinct from S. cineracea.
[120.] FLUVICOLA ALBIVENTRIS (Spix).
(WHITE-BELLIED TYRANT.)
Fluvicola albiventris, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 43; Durnford, Ibis, 1878, p. 59 (Buenos Ayres).
Description.—Above black; front half of head, narrow band across the rump, and slight edgings to wing-coverts and outer secondaries white; below white; bill and feet black: whole length 5·5 inches, wing 2·8, tail 2·2. Female similar.
Hab. Amazonia, Bolivia, and Argentine Republic.
The small black-and-white Tyrant is not uncommon in the marshes and on the river-margins in the Plata district, its spring migration extending south to Buenos Ayres. Like the Kingfisher, it haunts the water-side and is found nowhere else. It has a shy, retiring disposition, concealing itself in the close thickets overhanging a stream, so that one does not often see it, notwithstanding its conspicuous white plumage. When disturbed it emits a series of low ticking notes, or darts swiftly out from the thicket, showing itself for a moment over the water before disappearing once more into its hiding-place.
D’Orbigny says it makes a purse-shaped nest, of slender twigs, moss, and feathers neatly interlaced, and lays four white eggs, spotted at the large end with brown.