54 RUFOUS-BELLIED FLYCATCHER. 



present species, which seems confined to the western 

 coast, is not among the number. The group seems 

 to he altogether peculiar to the tropical latitudes of 

 Africa and India: the males are distinguished by 

 having the two middle feathers of their tail exces- 

 sively long, and their heads are usually adorned 

 with a short crest of scale-like feathers. It is to be 

 regretted that the generic name of Mwcicapa was 

 not retained to these birds, seeing that they are the 

 types of the whole sub-family, and that another was 

 not given to the European flycatchers, which form 

 an aberrant genus. Such errors are the inevitable 

 result of neglecting to analyze a group before it is 

 broken up into new divisions. We shall not, how- 

 ever, propose any further change, but continue to 

 call these typical flycatchers by the name of Mu- 

 scipeta. 



The species now under consideration differs from 

 all those figured by Le Vaillant in having the black 

 on the under plumage confined to the chin alone, 

 while all the rest of the body, both above and below, 

 is of a uniform rufous ; the black on the head covers 

 the crest, ears, and chin, and the rufous extends to 

 the wing-covers and the margins of the lesser quills. 

 The four outer or greater quills are entirely black, 

 which colour extends to the spurious quills and the 

 outermost wing- covers ; these latter, however, have 

 a faint whitish margin which unites to a white line 

 that borders only one of the lesser quills, as if it 

 divided the two sets. 



In 1829 there was a specimen of this species in 



