Description.—Above greyish olive, lores and superciliary stripe whitish; wings blackish, with whitish edgings to the coverts and outer secondaries; tail blackish; outer web of the external rectrix and broad tips of the four external pairs white; beneath pale yellow; bill and feet black: whole length 5·8 inches, wing 2·3, tail 3·0. Female similar.
Hab. Argentine Republic, including N. Patagonia.
This little bird inhabits the Mendoza and Patagonian districts, and does not appear to be migratory, for on the Rio Negro I found it at all seasons. It is slender in form, with a long tail, its total length being six inches. The sexes are alike in colour; the upper parts are yellowish grey, breast and belly light yellow. They are found living in pairs, all the year round, in thorn bushes, and are scarcely ever seen to rest, but hop incessantly from twig to twig, in a delicate, leisurely manner, seeking on the leaves for the minute caterpillars and other insects on which they live. While thus engaged they utter a variety of little chirping and twittering notes, as if conversing together, and occasionally the two birds unite their voices in a shrill, impetuous song.
[146.] SERPOPHAGA SUBCRISTATA (Vieill.).
(SMALL-CRESTED TYRANT.)
Serpophaga subcristata, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 454 (Entrerios); Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 47; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 177 (Buenos Ayres); White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 606 (Misiones); Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. vol. viii. p. 199 (Entrerios).
Description.—Above cinereous, usually with a slight olivaceous tinge on the rump; crest-feathers white at their bases, tipped with cinereous, and slightly varied with black; wings blackish, wing-coverts tipped with whitish, forming two handsome bands; outer secondaries externally margined with the same colour; tail dark ashy; beneath ashy white, with more or less yellowish tinge on the belly and under wing-coverts; bill horn-colour; feet black: whole length 4·5 inches, wing 2·0, tail 2·1. Female similar.
Hab. S.E. Brazil, Paraguay, Northern La Plata, and Bolivia.
This species is one of the smallest members of our Tyrannidæ, its total length being only four and a half inches. The sexes are alike; the upper plumage is grey, with a greenish tinge on the back; the breast paler grey, becoming pale yellow on the belly. There is a white concealed spot under the loose feathers of the crown.
It is quite common in Buenos Ayres, and, probably, has a partial migration, as it is most abundant in summer. In its habits it closely resembles the species last described, being always found in pairs, living in thickets, where they hop incessantly about, exploring the leaves for small caterpillars, and always conversing in low, chirping, and twittering notes. They also sing together a little confused song. The nest is fastened to the slender twigs of a low bush, and is a deep, cup-shaped and beautiful structure, composed of a great variety of soft materials bound together with spiders’ webs, the interior lined with feathers or vegetable down, and the outside with lichen. The eggs are two, bluntly pointed, and of a cream-colour.