Description.—Above cinereous; lores white; wings black, coverts cinereous; a well-marked speculum at the base of the primaries and the edgings of the outer secondaries white; tail black, tipped with whitish cinereous, basal one-third of tail white; below pale cinereous, middle of throat white, with blackish stripe on each side; middle of belly, flanks, crissum, and under tail-coverts white; bill horn-colour; feet black: whole length 9·0 inches, wing 5·0, tail 3·5. Female similar.
Hab. S.E. Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentine Republic, and Bolivia.
To this species Azara gives the name of Pepoazá, the Guarani for Barred-wing; and Pepoaza was used by him as a generic name for the small, well-defined group now placed in the genus Tænioptera, comprising eight known species. Most of these birds have some conspicuous wing-mark. They inhabit the southern portion of the South-American continent, from South Brazil and Bolivia to the Straits of Magellan, and are most numerous on the open pampas and in Patagonia. In size they do not vary greatly, the largest being about nine inches long, the smallest about seven. In colour they are grey, or, more frequently, white relieved with black or grey, one species (T. rubetra) being rufous. Their legs are long, and they run on the ground like Myiotheretes rufiventris, feeding, to some extent, in the same manner; but they also occasionally pursue and capture insects on the wing, like the typical Tyrant-birds that seldom or never alight on the ground. They have likewise another and unique preying-habit, intermediate between the Plover-like habits of Agriornis, Myiotheretes, and Muscisaxicola, and the Swallow- or Flycatcher-like habits of the true Tyrants. The bird perches itself on an elevation—the summit of a stalk, or bush, or even of a low tree—to watch like a Flycatcher for its insect prey; only instead of looking about for passing insects, it gazes intently down at the ground, just as a Kingfisher does at the water, and when it spies a beetle or grasshopper, darts down upon it, not, however, to snatch it up with the bill as other Tyrants do, but it first grasps it with its feet, then proceeds to despatch it, swaying about and opening its wings to keep its own balance, just as an Owl is seen to do when it grasps a mouse or other small animal in its claws. After devouring the insect on the spot, it flies back to its perch to resume the watch. They are very restless, active, playful birds, and seldom remain long on one spot, apparently finding it irksome to do so; but I have seen the T. irupero occupy the same perch for hours every day while looking out for insects.
As an English generic name for this small interesting group might be useful, I would suggest Ground-gazers or Ground-watchers, which describes the peculiar preying-habit of these birds.
The Pepoazá is a swift, active, graceful bird, with a strong, straight beak, hooked at the point, and a broad tail four inches long, the total length of the bird being nine inches. The throat and space between the beak and eye are white; all the rest of the body, also the wing- and tail-coverts, light grey; tail and wing-quills black, with a pure white band across the base of the primaries. The tertiaries and rectrices are tipped with pale rufous grey.
It inhabits Brazil south of the equator, Bolivia and Paraguay, also the northern provinces of the Argentine Republic. Mr. Barrows gives the following account of its lively habits in Entrerios:—“They are commonly seen perched on fences or the tops of bushes or trees in open ground, frequently making sallies for winged insects, or dropping to the ground to catch a grasshopper or worm. When shot at while perched and watching you, they almost invariably leave the perch at the flash, pitching forward and downward, and usually evading the shot, even at short range. Several times I have secured them by shooting about a foot below and two feet in front of them as they sat, but they do not always fly in this direction. The rapidity of their flight when frightened, or when quarrelling, is simply astonishing. I have seen one chase another for three or four minutes, doubling, turning, twisting, and shooting, now brushing the grass, and now rising to a height of at least two or three hundred feet, and all the movements so rapid that the eye could scarcely follow them; and at the end of it each would go back to the top of his own chosen weed-stalk, apparently without a feather ruffled.”
Azara found this species breeding in a hole in a bank; and Mr. Dalgleish has described a nest, taken from a tree in Uruguay, as a somewhat slight structure, four inches in diameter, formed of sticks and fibres, lined with fine grass and a few feathers. It contained three eggs, pear-shaped, white, with large well-defined spots of reddish brown.
[113.] TÆNIOPTERA CORONATA (Vieill.).
(BLACK-CROWNED TYRANT.)
Tænioptera coronata, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 459; Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 42; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 176 (Buenos Ayres); White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 603 (Buenos Ayres); Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro, Zool. p. 42 (R. Colorado); Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. vol. viii. p. 138 (Entrerios). Xolmis variegata, Darw. Zool. Voy. Beagle, iii. p. 54 (Santa Fé).