[133.] MUSCISAXICOLA MACLOVIANA (Garn.).
(CHIN-SPOTTED TYRANT.)
Muscisaxicola mentalis, Hudson, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 541 (Rio Negro); Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 44.
Description.—Above cinereous, lores blackish, cap brown; tail-coverts and tail black, outer margins of outer tail-feather white; below pale cinereous, passing into white on lower belly, crissum, and under wing-coverts; chin-spot brown: bill and feet black: whole length 6·1 inches, wing 4·1, tail 2·6. Female similar, but chin-spot not so well marked.
Hab. Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Patagonia, and Falkland Islands.
This South-Patagonian species is one of a Chilian group of Tyrant-birds which resemble in their habits the Saxicolæ of Europe. The plumage is generally grey, with more or less rufous colour on the crown; they have long legs, and run swiftly on the ground, frequent open sterile situations, and perch only occasionally on trees.
The present bird is about seven inches long; the upper parts are dull grey, except the crown, which is dark chestnut; under surface light grey, and tail nearly black. In the month of June I met with these birds on the Rio Negro, on their arrival there from the south. They went in flocks of a dozen or twenty birds; they had a swift easy flight, were shy and restless in their manner, and uttered low plaintive whistling notes. When a flock alights on the ground the birds all instantly scatter, running rapidly about in all directions over the bare ground. Occasionally one was seen to perch on some slight elevation, and dart like a Flycatcher after passing insects.
Darwin saw this bird as far north on the Atlantic coast as Bahia Blanca. He also found it at Tierra del Fuego, where it lives entirely on the sea-beaches; and in the sterile upper valleys of the Chilian Andes, at a height of ten thousand feet, where the last traces of vegetation occur and where no other bird lives.