LEUCOCIRCA. 120 



Leucoctrca, because it must form the connecting 

 link between the two primary groups. We have 

 had in our Museum, for the last thirteen years, a 

 most singular sort of flycatcher, whose natural rela- 

 tions, until the last week, had completely baffled 

 us; so much so, indeed, as to cast a doubt over 

 our arrangement both of the Saxicolce and the 

 Muscicapidce. The first impression, upon seeing 

 this bird, is that r>? its being a robin (Eryihaica); 

 ft glance at its bill and its feet destroys this idea, 

 and we should then pronounce it a flycatcher. But 

 its tail is so totally unlike that of the restricted 

 genus Muscicapa, where alone it might be supposed 

 to enter, that we were altogether perplexed as to 

 its precise station : and although we were convinced 

 it was either a most aberrant species, or the type 

 of a new sub -genus, we did not venture to charac- 

 terize it, even in our latest arrangement*. The 

 recent acquisition, however, of the birds before 

 alluded to, have solved all our doubts upon this 

 subject ; and under the sub-generic name of 



Class, of Birds, vol ii. 



