198 



CRYPTOLOPHA 



is the rasorial sub-genus, and has hitherto remained 

 undistinguished, the species having been coun- 

 founded with other groups. It seems to represent 

 Rhipidura in the pointed ends of the tail-feathers , 

 but it differs from its prototype in several parti- 

 culars. The bill is larger and stronger ; the anterior 

 scales of the tarsi are entire, and not in four or five 

 pieces; and the hind toe is so long as nearly to 

 equal the middle toe. The two groups, how- 

 ever, differ so materially in their manners, that 

 they cannot possibly be mistaken ; for even their 

 analogies are obscure. Cryptolopha, indeed, may be 

 distinguished at first sight from all the Indian 

 flycatchers we have yet seen ; for this is the only 

 group in which the plumage of all that we have 

 yet seen is olive-green. This is the only excep- 

 tion to our former remarks upon the colouring of 

 the Old World flycatchers, and was intended, as all 

 such general descriptions usually are, to be appli- 

 cable alone to the pre-eminent typical examples ; 

 that is, in the present instance, to the sub-genera 

 Miiscipeta and Myiagra. We have no doubt, in- 

 deed, that many of the green flycatchers of South 

 America truly belong to the sub-genus Lepturus, 



