MY1AGRA. 209 



claws deep black, while the anterior scales are 

 divided into irregular hexagons, analogous to what 

 we see among the gallinaceous birds. The whole 

 aspect of this bird suggests the idea of a swallow 

 flycatcher ; yet it obviously combines just as many 

 characters of the rasorial as of the fissirostral type. 

 Its thick compact form, large head, short feet and 

 tail, long wings, and glossy plumage, remind us of 

 a swallow ; while the stout tarsi, their hexagonal 

 scales, and the long pointed crest, are so many in- 

 dications of the rasorial type : for reasons which 

 will presently appear, we shall view it in the latter 

 light*. The fifth type of form we have not yet 

 seen; it should intervene between this bird and 

 M. longicauddy and represent the tenuirostral form. 

 Hitherto, out of the numerous species that have 

 passed under our inspection, there has been no one 

 which will completely answer our expectations on 

 this head, or against which some objections cannot 

 be raised. When the extreme delicacy, however, 

 of the analysis we are now making is considered, it 

 can excite no surprise, that in the present state of 

 ornithological knowledge, we are unprepared to 

 close the circle of a sub-genus, or that we should 

 be ignorant of one part of the succession of its 

 species. Before proceeding to generalize these ob- 

 servations, we shall first describe one of the species 

 above alluded to, namely, the Myiayra lonyicattda* 



* My'iayra flai'ipes Nob. 



