92 Mr. P. L. Sclater on the 



be quite in breeding-plumage. Seven other skins in my col- 

 lection have white chins ; but the male described by Dybowsky 

 is said to have the throat black to the base of the bill. If full 

 summer plumage be so rare in this species, it may also be so 

 in M. leucopsis, and Mr. Hume is probably right in con- 

 sidering M. sechuensis as the fully adult plumage of the latter 

 species. Assuming this to be the case, the Pied Wagtails of 

 of Asia in adult summer plumage may be diagnosed as 

 follows : 



a. Back grey. 



a'. Cheeks black personata. 



V. Cheeks white. 



a". Black line through the eye ocularis. 



b". No black line through the eye dukhunensis. 



b. Back black. 



c'. Cheeks black. 



c". Chin white japomca. 



d". Chin black. 



a'". Black on the head coming down in a 



peak to the base of the tail maderaspatana. 



b'". Forehead white hodgsoni. 



d'. Cheeks, white. 



e". Black line through the eye. 



c'". Shoulders black ; secondaries white .. blakistoni. 

 d'". Shoulders grey ; secondaries brown .. amurensis. 

 f". No black line through the eye . leucopsis. 



VIII. On the Genera Microbates and Rhamphocsenus of the 

 Family Formicariidsfe. By P. L. SCLATER, M.A., Ph.D., 

 F.R.S. 



(Plate III.) 



IN the Appendix to our 'Nomenclator Avium Neotropi- 

 calium/ published in 1873, Mr. Salvin and I instituted a 

 new genus of Formicariidse, with the subjoined characters : 



MICROBATES, gen. nov. 

 (jjuKpos, parvus, et ftarrjs, qui incedit.) 



Habitus generalis Rhamphocceni, rostro paulo crassiore at 



