FORK-TAILS. 489 



present quite a different style of coloration, black, gray, and white or yellow being 

 distributed in continuous areas and not broken up into stripes or mottlings. Like the 

 pipits, they are very partial to the neighborhood of water, running or stagnant, and 

 like them they are nearly exclusively terrestrial in their habits, running gracefully and 

 swiftly over the ground, putting one foot in front of the other, and jerking the long 

 tail up and down. Their geographical distribution is noticeable, since no form is in- 

 digenous in the New World, the yellow wag-tail (Jludytes flavus leucostriatus) occur- 

 ring in Alaska being only a slight eastern race of the typical European form, which 

 but recently has extended its range into the northwestern corner of our continent. 



A small group of anomalous birds, the exact position of which is nearly as doubt- 

 ful now as it was some sixty years ago, when the first species was discovered, are next 

 to be mentioned. The fork-tails, on account of a certain resemblance in form, coloi-, 

 and habits, have been placed by most authors near Mot ac ilia ; others have referred 

 them to the immediate vicinity of the water-ouzel (Cinclus) ; while Mr. R. B. Sharpe 

 has given them place as an ' aberrant group ' in the Timaliida', on account of the 

 form of the wing, the first (tenth) primary being rather long and well developed. 

 Under the circumstances, it seems to us preferable to keep them separate from the 

 rest, and until a satisfactoi'y place be found for them we shall designate them as Exi- 

 CURIDJE. Only eleven species, belonging to three genera, are known, their range 

 being from the Indian and Chinese Himalayas down through the Burmese countries 

 to the Malay peninsula and the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. The most 

 characteristic species and the type of the genus Enicurus is figured in the accompany- 

 ing cut, which needs no further comment, since the colors are black and white, as seen 

 in the drawing. There is one feature of the coloration of these birds of uncertain 

 affinity, which is of great interest, viz., the Avhite tips to the rectrices. We call special 

 attention to this fact, because we have recently seen it asserted that such a style of the 

 tail-feathers is only found in birds with rounded or graduated tail. This "exception' 

 is the more remarkable, since Microcichla scouleri, which has a short and nearly 

 square tail, has no such white marks at the end of the rectrices. As to their habits, 

 Mr. H. J. Elwes remarks that "their motions are so active and lively that they form 

 a conspicuous feature in Himalayan scenery, being usually found, either singly or in 

 pairs, flitting rapidly from rock to rock by the side of the most rapid torrents. They 

 appear to be very partial to the neighborhood of a waterfall or rapid. They make a 

 large nest of moss and fibres, which is placed under a rock close to the water. Their 

 food consists of insects, larvae, water-beetles, and small shells." 



Before leaving the Enicuridas, however, I would like to record my suspicions that 

 they are not laminiplantar or even oscinine at all. The tarsi are 'booted,' it is true, 

 but the posterior aspect is rounded, and not sharp-edged, as in typical laminiplantar 

 birds. In other words, I find the tarsus to agree very closely with that of the ' booted ' 

 species of Pitta, in the neighborhood of which I believe that the J?nicuri will finally 

 have to be placed, as soon as their anatomy shall have become known. 



In their attempts at framing natural families among the Oscines, ihe different 

 monographers have thrown out of the old-fashioned artificial groups which formerly 

 were honored by that rank all the inconvenient forms which would not properly fit 

 into the new scheme, without providing another or better place for them in the sys- 

 tem. As they had to be accommodated somewhere, and as many systematists have a 

 great horror of 'families' consisting of only a few genera or even a few species, all 

 these heterogeneous forms were put into the great 'waste-basket ' which has been 



