101 



FLUVICOLA, 



the chief type of this sub-family. A great uni- 

 formity of plumage runs through all the species we 

 have seen of this group, so that very many, we 

 doubt not, have been overlooked or disregarded as 

 varieties; the predominant colour is pure white, 

 with deep black wings and tail; sometimes the whole 

 or a part of the back and head is grey ; the largest 

 species is the Fluvicola nengeta, which is clothed 

 in the same coloured plumage as the American 

 mock -bird, while the smallest* is so like the Euro- 

 pean Muscicapa atricapella, that it is not surpris- 

 ing the old ornithologists in their systems placed 

 it immediately after that bird. The aspect of all 

 these birds, in short, will remind every one of the 

 stone-chats and wheat-ears, and thus will do away 

 with the necessity of proving that they represent each 

 other. One of the most remarkable species is the 

 Fluvicola cursorial) because in this we see the tail, 

 although not unusually long, is so much graduated 

 as to assume something of the same shape and ap- 

 pearance as that of the next genus Rhipidura; an- 

 other of the most typical species is the 



* Fluvieola bicolor, Sw. ; Muscicapa bicolor, Gm., Latham, 

 &c. PI. Enl. 675. f..l. 

 f Zool. Illustrations. 



