(RED-BACKED TYRANT.)
+Centrites niger+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 458; _Scl. et Salv.
Nomencl._ p. 44; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 395 (Chupat); _White,
P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 604 (Buenos Ayres); _Döring, Exp. al Rio
Negro, Zool._ p. 42 (R. Colorado); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn.
Cl._ viii. p. 142 (Entrerios, Pampas).
_Description._--Above and below deep black: whole of back except
the rump and scapularies chestnut; bill and feet black; under
wing-coverts and wings below black: whole length 5·0 inches, wing
2·8, tail 1·9. _Female_ above brown, back fulvous red; tail black;
below ashy brown.
_Hab._ Patagonia, Chili, and Argentina.
The little Red-backed Tyrant comes nearest to _Muscisaxicola mentalis_
in habits, but does not perch on bushes and trees, and is less
gregarious than that bird. It is the smallest of all those varied
members of the _Tyrannine_ family which have abandoned forests and
marshes and the pursuit of insects on the wing, to live on the wintry
uplands of Patagonia, and on the sterile plains bordering on the Andes.
The male is only five and a quarter inches long. The entire plumage of
the male is intensely black, except the back, which is bright chestnut.
The inside of the mouth and tongue are vivid orange-yellow. The chestnut
colour on the female is pale, the rest of the plumage grey, except the
quills, which are dark.
Its summer home is in the southern portion of Patagonia, but its
nesting-habits are not known. In March it migrates north, and is very
common everywhere on the pampas throughout the winter. They arrive in
small parties of three or four, or in little loose flocks of about a
dozen individuals, travelling with a swift low flight. Males, females,
and young, grey like the last, arrive together; shortly after arriving
the young males become mottled with black, and before leaving acquire
the adult plumage. They appear to leave in spring all together, but from
a note by Durnford it would appear that the males travel in advance of
the females. He says:--"Males of this species were common at Chupat
throughout September and during the first few days of October. On the
5th of the latter month I observed the first females, which gradually
increased in number."
The Little Red-backs inhabit open unsheltered plains, and have so great
a predilection for bare ground on which they can run freely about, that
on their arrival on the pampas, where the earth is thickly carpeted with
grass, they are seen attaching themselves to roads, sheep-pens, borders
of streams, vizcacha villages, and similar places. They are exceedingly
restless, running swiftly over the ground, occasionally darting into the
air in pursuit of small flies, and all the flock so scattered that there
will be a dozen yards between every two birds. Mr. Barrows describes
their lively habits very well:--"I think this is one of the most
restless birds I ever saw. You cannot depend upon him to be in the same
place two consecutive half-seconds. He runs like a Sanderling, and
whenever he keeps his feet still by accident, his wings are flirted
in a way that shows his anxiety to be off. Several are usually found
together, and sometimes a loose flock of a hundred or more is seen. They
are very strong on the wing, sometimes mounting rapidly for several
hundred feet, if suddenly startled, and after a few moments spent in
circling like a Snipe, they drop again almost as suddenly as a shot, and
as if from the very clouds."