Aïoitralian Birds in the Collection of the Linnean Societi/. 251 



salibus, ovalibus, setis plumulisque ferè obtectis ; ricfu vi- 



brissis for ti bus hirsute . 

 Alee médiocres subrotundatte ; rcmige prima brevi, secundâ 



duplt> ferè longiore, tertiâ quartâ et quintû ferè œqualibus 



lonoissimis. 

 Couda mediocris, lata, asqualis aut interdum subfurcata. 

 Pedes graciles, médiocres ; acrotarsiis scutellatis, scutorum sutu- 



ris vix decernendis. 



The necessity of subdividing the overgrown Linnean genus of 

 Miiscicapa has long been acknowledged : and the dithculty of 

 seizing upon such characters as will serve to distinguish such 

 subdivisions has been equally admitted. Where so much simi- 

 larity prevails as in the characters belonging to all the species 

 of the truly natural group of Muscicapidce, it is only b}'^ observing 

 the différent modifications of the same characters, — by fixing, in 

 fact, upon the greater or less developement of them, and not by 

 detecting any tangible difi'erences among them, — that we can 

 hope to draw such boundary lines between the groups of the 

 family as will restrain the number of species contained in each 

 within moderate limits. 



Hitherto the only material subdivisions that have been insti- 

 tuted in this family consist of the genera Plati/rhi/nchiis, Desm., 

 and Muscipeta, Cuv. The former of these groups includes those 

 birds in which the broad and flattened bill, peculiar to the Lin- 

 nean Muscicapœ, is carried to the extreme bounds of its de- 

 velopement. The breadth, which is nearly equal to that of the 

 head, extends nearly the whole length of the bill, which becomes 

 narrower only towards the apeâ\ Such a character aftbrds a 

 good foundation for a group. The genus Muscipetc does not 

 appear to be equally well defined. As it has been latterly 

 extended by those ornithologists who have adopted the name of 



2 K 2 M. Cuvier's 



