88 FLUVICOLIN^E OR WATER-CHATS. 



and white colour of their plumage. Such are the 

 general habits of the whole group, but it comprises 

 several genera, differing in the formation of the tail, 

 the bill, and the wings. Of these the most curious 

 is Alectura, first noticed by Azara under the name 

 of Le Petit Coq. (Voy. iii. ? 447) ; its tail is broad, 

 and, like that of our domestic fowl, it is laterally 

 compressed and carried erect ; in one species these 

 feathers end in long naked filaments, and in another 

 it is greatly forked. Near to these may be placed 

 the long- tailed shrike-like flycatcher, another bird 

 equally remarkable for the developement of the 

 tail; it is called Yiperu by Azara, and is the 

 type of the sub-genus Gubemetes. The fly-catchers, 

 in general, are by no means a social family, yet 

 nearly all of this division appear to live in small 

 societies, frequenting, in little troops, the low 

 marshy grounds of South America, where they keep 

 up a loud discordant and disagreeable babbling ; they 

 are no less distinguished by these peculiarities than 

 by their plumage, which is universally varied only 

 with different shades of black and white. The 

 whole group, as here characterised, is confined to 

 tropical America. There are more birds referable 

 to this group than to either of the two preceding, 

 but it has been so completely overlooked by all sys- 

 tematic writers, with the exception of Azara, that it 

 is very difficult at present to form a just idea of its 

 contents. 



In the foregoing remarks, the reader will perceive 

 some peculiarities of the aquatic type, mingled, as 



