SEfltSURA. 137 



was occasionally spread out in the same manner ; a 

 fact confirmed by what has been published of its 

 manners. It is a mistake, however, to suppose 

 that this bird has no bristles at the gape; for 

 although they do not reach to half the length of the 

 bill, which is uncommonly long, they are neverthe- 

 less very stiff, and there are several others, slightly 

 recurved, over the nostrils. We have already re- 

 marked how intimately this form appeared connected 

 to the American water- chats, although we strongly 

 suspected that future analysis would show that it 

 belonged to the circle of Rhipidura. This opinion 

 has been so strongly confirmed by a subsequent 

 investigation, that we now place it at once as the 

 tenuirostral sub-genus, a station which at once 

 reconciles all the opinions that have been formed of 

 it, and all that is known of its very peculiar man- 

 ners. Occupying the most aberrant situation in 

 the present genus, it is consequently that which 

 unites Rhipidura to the Fluvicolince : as the tenui- 

 rostral type, it represents, in a most remarkable 

 manner, its prototypes among the todies and the 

 flycatchers, namely, the sub-genera Platystera and 

 Hyliota, both of which have very long bills, the 

 primary character of all tenuirostral types. Mr. 

 Caley, who seems to have possessed much tact 

 in observing the habits of the Australian birds, 

 observes of this : " I have often considered it, 

 when I witnessed its manners, to be the wagtail of 

 the colony*." And such it truly is. The wagtails, 

 * Linn. Trans, xv. 250. 



