Australian Birds in the Collection of the Liniiean Society. 253 



afford some assistance towards the subdivision of the family. In 

 it the bill, like that of the group to which we would restrict the 

 name of Muscipeta, is intermediate in breadth between the bills 

 of the true Muscicapa and Platyrhynchus. It is at the same time 

 moderately short ; in which it differs from the bill of Muscipeta. 

 The tail is even, by which character it may be also distinguished 

 from the latter genus ; and moderate in length, by which it is 

 separated from the equally even but long-tailed Seisura. In 

 drawing a line between the species of this family we are inclined 

 to lay much stress upon the structure of the tail. Nearly allied 

 as the Avhole group is to the Fissirostral Birds which feed upon 

 the wing, and being themselves accustomed to seize their prey 

 in the air, a member which, like the tail, contributes to their 

 powers of flight, or support upon the wing, must be considered 

 as of much importance : and in a numerous family like that 

 before us, which calls for subdivision, and in which no stronger 

 mark of distinction is tangible, it appears to us that the variations 

 in the structure of the tail afford not merely a convenient arti- 

 ficial ground of separation, but one which is sufficiently natural. 

 The group, as we have at present characterized it, does not 

 appear to be peculiar to New Holland. Some American spe- 

 cies, such as the Muscicapa querula and il/, rapax of Wilson^s 

 " Ornithology," appear to belong to it. 



]. RuBECOLOiDEs. .1/^. plumheo-grisca, gutture pcctorcque 

 rujis, abdomine albido, pteronuitibus rcmigibus recfricibusque 

 fuscis. 



Ptcroinata rci}ugesc[ue interiores pallido-fusco-marginatne. Tec- 

 trices inferiores albida?, fusco-variegata^ lieiniges rectri- 

 cesque subtus grisescentes. Rostrum nigrum. Pedes fusci. 

 Longitudo corporis, 5^; ahe a carpo ad remigem quartam, 3 ; 

 caadcc, 2} ; rostri ad frontem, f , ad rictum, -^^ ; tarsi, -y\. 



2. Plujmuea. 



