(WIDOW TYRANT.)
+Tænioptera irupero+, _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 141 (Buenos
Ayres); _iid. Nomencl._ p. 42; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 603
(Catamarca, Misiones); _Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro, Zool._ p. 42
(R. Colorado); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ vol. viii. p. 139
(Entrerios). +Tænioptera moesta+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii.
p. 460.
_Description._--Above and beneath pure white; wings with the
primaries black except the innermost, which are white at their
bases and tipped with black, and secondaries which have narrow
black shafts; broad end of the tail black; bill and feet black;
two outer primaries acuminated: whole length 7·0 inches, wing 4·3,
tail 3·2. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentine Republic, and Bolivia.
This pretty species is found throughout the Argentine country, and is
well known to the natives, and usually called _Viudita_ (Little Widow),
on account of its mourning colours. It is also sometimes curiously named
_Anjelito de las Animas_, from a superstitious notion due to the intense
whiteness of its plumage and to its supposed habit of frequenting
graveyards. In both sexes the entire plumage is snowy white, except the
primaries and the tip of the tail, which are black. In habits it is
more sedentary than other _Tæniopteræ_, and obtains its food chiefly by
patiently watching the surface of the ground for its insect prey. Its
marvellously white plumage, and the habit of sitting motionless on the
summit of a bush or tree, make it a most conspicuous object, so that it
is strange to find such a bird existing in districts which abound in
raptorial species; for Hawks, I have frequently noticed, will always
single out a white or conspicuously coloured bird for pursuit, and
though the Little Widow, like the other members of its genus, is swift
and strong of wing, the feeble and the young must often fall victims to
their shining white plumage.
The Little Widow is a solitary bird, and not nearly so lively and
playful in manner as _T. coronata_ and _T. dominicana_, its surpassing
whiteness being its most interesting feature. Its nesting-habits are
unlike those of other _Tæniopteræ_, for it breeds only in holes, usually
in the bole or branch of a tree; but sometimes it takes possession of
the oven of _Furnarius rufus_ to lay in. The nest is composed chiefly of
feathers and contains four eggs, creamy white, with a few very minute
red spots, irregularly distributed. Mr. Dalgleish says, "Some eggs have
only two or three spots, none have more than eight or ten."
Mr. Barrows says:--"The adults have several of the primaries remarkably
attenuated. Young birds appear to acquire these attenuate primaries only
after a complete moult. But I took one specimen which showed one or more
primaries with tips of ordinary shape but with a line apparently _worn_
into the vane of the inner web, so as to mark out distinctly the
attenuate tip, and it seemed as if a little more wearing would cut out
a piece which would leave the primary as in the old bird."