MUSCICAPA. 223 



gra or as a Muscicapa^ our tlieory that these two 

 sub-genera unite will not be affected. But we 

 must not think that there are no variations from 

 the structure of Muscicapa grisola in the other 

 species associated in the same sub-genus : on the 

 contrary, there are some very remarkable ones 

 besides the one just instanced in M. erythaca^ 

 which, as we shall presently show, is evidently an 

 extreme aberrant species. In our M. thalassina 

 and ruficauda^ two Indian species subsequently 

 described, the wings are so much rounded as to 

 resemble those of M. erythaca, although the toes 

 are not more united than in M. grisola^ and in all 

 these three the tail is rounded. Again, in our M. 

 latirostris, another species from India, the plumage 

 is almost precisely the same as that of grisola ; but 

 then the bill is so remarkably depressed as to give 

 it the appearance, in this respect, of being a Myta- 

 gra. From these we pass to the European albicollis^ 

 by means of such birds as M. parvirostra and leu- 

 cura, which begin to show the white and black 

 colour so common on the tail of the stone-chats. 

 Our M. parvirostra agrees so closely in point of 

 colour with the description of the bird called by M. 

 Temminck the young male of his M. albicollis, that 

 we question very much if it may not have been 

 overlooked for that. However this may be, the 

 two species, in our opinion, are sufficiently distinct. 

 The bill of the adult albicollis, which we found in 

 Sicily near twenty years ago, is broad at its base, 

 while that of parmrostra, as the name implies, is 



