(DOMINICAN TYRANT.)
+Tænioptera dominicana+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 460
(Entrerios); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 42; _Durnford, Ibis_,
1877, p. 176 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 38
(Buenos Ayres); _Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro, Zool._ p. 42 (Azul,
Currumalan); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ vol. viii. p. 139
(Entrerios, Pigué, Pampas).
_Description._--Above pure white; wings black, with a broad whitish
subapical band across the first six primaries, beyond which the
tips are blackish; tail black; beneath pure white: whole length 8·0
inches, wing 4·6, tail 4·2. _Female_ similar, but head above and
back cinereous.
_Hab._ S.E. Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentine Republic.
This bird ranges from South Brazil and Paraguay to the southernmost
pampas of Buenos Ayres. Its total length is eight inches. The wings
and tail are black, the former barred with white; all the rest of the
plumage in the male is pure white; in the female the upper parts are
grey.
It is to some extent migratory, and usually goes in flocks of a dozen or
twenty birds, and frequents open situations where there are bushes and
trees, also plains covered with giant grasses. They are more social in
their habits than _T. coronata_, but in other respects closely resemble
it, and are exceedingly active lively birds, and when the flock is on
the wing continually pursue each other in a playful manner.
Mr. Barrows observed them in autumn on the Pigué (southern pampas)
preparing for their migration. "Late in March," he says, "we found them
in large scattered flocks, which collected in one place toward evening,
and went through a series of aerial evolutions accompanied with vocal
exercises of a varied and entertaining kind, lasting half an hour or
more.
"I presume this was in preparation for their northward (or westward?)
migration, as we did not see them again after leaving this spot."