The Scissor-tails have one remarkable habit; they are not gregarious, but once every day, just before the sun sets, all the birds living near together rise to the tops of the trees, calling to one another with loud, excited chirps, and then mount upwards like rockets to a great height in the air; then, after whirling about for a few moments, they precipitate themselves downwards with the greatest violence, opening and shutting their tails during their wild zigzag flight, and uttering a succession of sharp, grinding notes. After this curious performance they separate in pairs, and perching on the tree-tops each couple utters together its rattling castanet notes, after which the company breaks up.
[ Fam. XIV. PIPRIDÆ, or MANIKINS.]
The brilliantly coloured Pipridæ or Manikins are nearly altogether confined to the tropical portions of the Neotropical Region, where they number about 70 species. Only one of these has as yet been discovered intruding in the northern outskirts of the Argentine Republic.
[172.] CHIROXIPHIA CAUDATA (Shaw).
(LONG-TAILED MANIKIN.)
Chiroxiphia caudata, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 55; White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 608 (Misiones).
Description.—Above blue; cap scarlet; sides of head, nape, and wings black; tail black edged with bluish, two middle rectrices lengthened; beneath blue; throat, crissum, and under wing-coverts black; bill and feet reddish: whole length 6·0 inches, wing 3·1, tail 2·5. Female green, cap scarlet.
Hab. S.E. Brazil, Paraguay, and N.E. Argentina.
White obtained two or three males and one female of this Manikin in the forests of Misiones, on the banks of the Uruguay. One of his specimens is now in the British Museum.