MUSCICAPA. 217 



ters), by the very small size of the first quill- 

 feather. The strongest of these resemblances, how- 

 ever, is between Muscicapa and Saxicola, for here 

 the spurious quill-feather and the whole structure 

 of the wings is almost precisely the same. Neither 

 will the bill altogether " serve our turn ;" for 

 although that of Muscicapa is rather more de- 

 pressed, such a distinction, founded merely upon a 

 comparative quality, is vague and unsatisfactory. 

 Nevertheless, as one family lives chiefly upon the 

 ground, and the other is never seen but upon trees, 

 this difference of habit necessarily carries with it 

 a difference of structure, and this is immediately 

 apparent in the feet, those of Saxicola being 

 nearly half as large again as those of Muscicapa. 

 The one, in fact, is constructed for perching only, 

 the latter for perching and walking ; hence the 

 great length of the tarsus, and the complete sepa- 

 ration of the toes in all the different genera of the 

 Saxicolince* ', a structure quite opposed to the 

 shortness of the tarsus, and the union of the outer 

 and inner toe, which pervades, more or less, through 

 the whole of the Muscicapince. 



The variations in the foregoing characters of 

 Muscicapa^ so far as they have come before us, 

 will now be stated. Let us first, however, call the 

 attention of the ornithologist to the last bird which 

 has been mentioned in our account of My'ia^ra^ 

 because its structure will assist us materially in 



* One of these is composed of the robins, Erythaca, which 

 Muscicapa, as now restricted, represents. 



