Description.—Above olive-green; cap brownish ochraceous, more or less rufescent; front and superciliaries chestnut-red; sides of head clear grey, beneath pale buff; breast and flanks yellow; throat greyish white; bill reddish grey, feet grey; eye reddish: total length 7·0 inches, wing 3·4, tail 2·8. Female similar.
Hab. Middle districts of Argentina.
This species is not uncommon in the woods along the shores of the Plata, and may be easily known to any person penetrating them by its loud “cheerful soliloquy,” for that phrase of Mr. Barrows, the North-American writer on birds, well describes the artless, light-hearted song which it utters at intervals while it roams about in the deep foliage, and which reminds one of the careless whistling of a boy, whistling merely to express his gaiety, but without having any particular tune in his mind. It is migratory, and extends its range south of Buenos Ayres.
[24.] CYCLORHIS ALTIROSTRIS, Salvin.
(DEEP-BILLED GREENLET-SHRIKE.)
[Plate III. Fig. 2.]
Cyclorhis altirostris, Salv. Ibis, 1880, p. 352; Gadow, Cat. B. viii. p. 319. Cyclorhis viridis, Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. viii. p. 88 (Concepcion, Entrerios); Berl. et Jher. Zeitschr. ges. Orn. 1885, p. 116.
Description.—Above olive-green; head more or less rufescent; front and superciliaries chestnut-red; sides of head grey, beneath pale ochraceous; breast and sides yellow; throat greyish; bill short and thick, pale reddish, with a black blotch at the base of the lower mandible; feet reddish: total length 6·5 inches, wing 3·3, tail 3·0. Female similar.
Hab. Paraguay and Northern Argentina.
This species was met with by Durnford near Salta in June 1878. He describes the iris as “light rufous; upper mandible dark slate, under mandible, legs, and feet pale slate.”