(STRANGE-TAILED TYRANT.)
+Alectrurus guira-yetapa+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 43; _Durnford,
Ibis_, 1878, p. 60 (Buenos Ayres). +Alectrurus risorius+,
_Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 140 (Entrerios).
+Alectrurus psalurus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 457 (S.
Luis).
_Description._--Above black, rump grey; front varied with white;
wings black, scapularies, outer margins of wing-feathers and coverts
white; tail black, two outer rectrices much elongated, denuded at
the base, with a broad inner and no outer vane; below white, broad
band across the breast black; throat in the breeding-season bare of
feathers and of a bright orange; bill yellowish; feet black: whole
length 11·0 inches, wings 3·0; tail, outer rectrices 8·0, middle
2·0. _Female_: above brown, wings varied with white; beneath white;
breast-band pale brown; tail with the two outer rectrices slightly
elongated and denuded, terminated with spatulations on the inner
vane.
_Hab._ S. Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentine Republic.
Azara named this species _Cola estraña_ (Strange-tail), but mentions
incidentally that its Guarani name is 'guira-yetapá' (Scissor-tail), a
term which the Indians apply indiscriminately to several species having
the same sort of tail.
The Guira-yetapá is a very curious little bird, with a black, white, and
grey plumage and the beak of a true Tyrant; but it differs from all its
congeners in having the skin of the chin, throat, and sides of the head
bare of feathers, and these parts in the breeding-season are a bright
orange colour. It is a feeble flier, its wings being very short, while
the two outer tail-feathers are abnormally long and peculiar in form.
Mr. Barrows says:--"The remarkable condition of the outer pair of
tail-feathers is interesting. In the male these two feathers reach a
length of nearly ten inches, the rest of the tail being about three
inches in length. The vane on the _inner_ side of each is wanting for
the first two inches, and then suddenly develops to a width of nearly
two inches, which it maintains almost to the tip, when it gradually
narrows. The vane on the _outer_ side of the shaft is only about
one-quarter of an inch wide, and is folded so tightly against the shaft
that it is quite inconspicuous. In the only two males of this species
which I have seen flying, these long feathers seemed to be carried
folded together _beneath_ the rest of the tail, and stretching out
behind like a rudder or steering-oar, their vanes at right angles to
the plane of the rest of the tail."
Mr. Gibson gives a different account, and says the flight is singularly
feeble, resembling the fluttering passage of a butterfly through the
air, while the tail streams out behind.
It inhabits Paraguay, Uruguay, and the eastern portion of the Argentine
Republic, ranging as far south as the pampas in the neighbourhood of
Patagonia. It is usually seen singly or in pairs; Azara says he saw a
flock of thirty individuals, but as they were all _females_, it may be
that in this species, as in _Lichenops perspicillata_, the females are
sometimes gregarious, and the males always solitary. It frequents open
places, such as the borders of marshes, or plains covered with tall
grasses, and perches in a conspicuous place, from which it darts at
passing insects like a Flycatcher.
Mr. Gibson found its nest on the ground amongst herbage, and describes
it as a neat structure of dried grass, containing three white eggs with
a faint cream-coloured tinge.