(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."
Mr. Salvin founded his _C. altirostris_ upon Durnford's specimens, but
Graf v. Berlepsch is of opinion that this species is the "_Habia verde_"
of Azara, and should consequently bear the name "_viridis_" of Vieillot.
This is perhaps correct, but at the same time it would only make fresh
confusion to transfer to this species the name hitherto usually applied
to the preceding bird. We prefer, consequently, to let it stand under
Mr. Salvin's name "_altirostris_."
Fam. VIII. HIRUNDINIDÆ, or SWALLOWS.
The cosmopolitan family of Swallows, of which about eighty species
are known, is well developed in the New World, where some thirty
representatives occur in various parts. In Argentina the occurrence of
eight Swallows has been recorded. Three of them belong to the group of
Purple Martins (_Progne_), which is restricted to the New World, and
of the remainder four are members of genera entirely restricted to the
Neotropical Region. The genus _Petrochelidon_, of which one species
is met with in La Plata, has alone representatives in the Eastern
Hemisphere.