RHIPIDURA (Rons. AND VIG.), 



we begin with that group which shows the nearest 

 affinity to the Fluvicolince^ or Water-chats. It 

 will be remembered, that on a former occasion* we 

 placed the Australian genus Seisura, conditionally, 

 within the confines of the Fluvicolincv, though with 

 very considerable doubt; expressing, at the same 

 time, a strong suspicion that it truly belonged to 

 the present division. This opinion has been fully 

 confirmed by subsequent investigations; and we 

 shall here attempt to refer it to its true rank and 

 station among its congeners. The typical characters 

 of the fan-tailed flycatchers may be gathered from 

 what has already been intimated in our attempt to 

 make out their analogies : their chief distinction, as 

 their name implies, is exhibited in a very broad 

 and rounded tail, which the bird is constantly in 

 the habit of opening or expanding in the shape of a 

 fan; next to this, in importance, is the general 

 strength of their feet, as seen more particularly in 

 three of the typical sub-genera, the tarsus of which 

 is much larger than in any genuine flycatcher yet 

 discovered. The bill exhibits nothing very peculiar 

 or strikingly different from the typical flycatchers, 

 except, indeed, that the sides, towards the end, 

 * Class, of Birds, vol. ii. p. 89. 



