238 BIRDS. 
a large spot on the wing, a smaller one in front, and the external 
edge of the tail, white. It builds on the trunks of trees*. 
A species subject to the same changes has lately been discovered ; 
the back of the neck of the male, however, in the pairing season, 
being as black as the back, and wanting the little white spot on the 
edge of the wing. It is the 
M., luctuosa, Tem.; Naum. 64; Edw. 30,1. The female, Enl. 
668, 1. Which is found farther north than the preceding. 
A small reddish species has lately been discovered in Germany. 
M. parva, Bechst.; Naum. 65, 3. 
The bill of the Fly-catchers becomes more and more slender, and finally 
approaches that of several species of Regulus}. 
Some species, in which the ridge is somewhat higher, and arched to- 
wards the point, lead to the forms of the Saxicole }. 
Various genera or subgenera of birds are closely allied to certain links 
in the series of Fly-catchers, although they greatly exceed them in 
size, viz. 
* The antients knew this bird by the names of Sycalis and Ficedula, in its ordi- 
nary plumage, and by that of Melancorhynchos and Atricapilla, in its beautiful livery; 
but as the name of Bec-figue ( Becca-fico), which corresponds to ficedula, is given in 
the south, and in Italy, to various species of Fauvet and Anthus, naturalists have ap- 
plied the united attributes of these birds to a certain state of this Fly-catcher, and 
formed the imaginary species presented by this same name of Bec-figue in Buffon, 
and in those who have followed him. It is very certainly the M. albicollis, and not 
the M. luctuosa, that is the Becca-fico of Aldrovandus, Ornith. IT. 758 and 759. 
f We also refer to the true Fly-catchers, the Gillit (Musc. bicolor), Enl. 675, 1.— 
Le Pririt, Vaill. 161; Enl. 567, 1 and 2 (M. senegalensis, Gm.).—M. albicapilla, 
Vieill. Am. 37.—WM. armillata, Ib. 4, 2.—M. diops, Tem. 144, 1.—M. eximia, Ib. 2. 
—WM. ventralis, Id. Col. 275, 2.—M. virescens, Ib. 8.—M. obsoleta, Ib. 1.—M. flabel- 
lifera, Ib., Gmel. Lath. Syn. II. part I. pl. 49.—M. serita, Vaill. Afr. 154.—M. ruti- 
cilla, Gm. Enl. 556: Vieill. Am. 35 and 36; Wils. I. vi. 6.—Platyr. paganus, Spix.— 
Pl. marinus, 1d. 2.—Pipra elata, Id. VIII. 2.—(a) 
{ Such are the Oranor, Vaill. TV. 155, and several neighbouring species, similar 
to the Muse. ruticilla, so far as regards the distribution of colours, but differing in the 
bill, such as Muse. miniata, Tem. or Turdus speciosus, Lath. Col. 156.—M. flam- 
mea, Forst. Zool. Ind. 25 and Tem. Col. 263, or Parus malabaricus, Lath.—M. hya- 
cinthina, Col. 80.—The dzuroua (M. azurea), Vaill. Afr. 158, 2.—M. nigerrima, Vieill. 
Dict. Spix, 18, 1.—M. galeata, Spix, 17, a different species.—WM. stellata, Vieill., 
Vaill. 157, 2. M. longipes, or the Miro- Miro of New Zealand, Less. and Garn. Voy. 
de Duper. Zool. pl. 19, 1. MM. chrysomelas, Ib. pl. 18.—M. nivea, Spix, 29,1. MM. 
icterophis, Vieill., Dict.—M. mirundinacea, Tem. Col. 119.—The Muse. multicolor, 
Gm. Lath. Syn. 2, L., is so intermediate between the Fly-catchers and the Mot. phoeni- 
curus, that we hesitate to assign its position. 
The species of this type which have the strongest bills appear to constitute the 
Drimopny es of M. Temminck. ’ 
N.B. The Mus flabellifera has become the genus Ripipura of Vig. and Horsf. 
and the M. ruticilla, the Speropuaca of Swainson. The M. sternura, T. Col. 167, 3, 
is the STERNURA of Swains.: and the species whose head is enlarged by feathers, 
such as the M. australis, White, p. 239, his genus, PacuicpPHALa. The neigh- 
bouring genus, SersurA, is formed from the T'urdus volitans, Lath. 
as (a) Here should come the genus Vireo, Vieill. (Muscicapa, L., &c.) 
These have a bill like the Muscicapa, but it is shorter, not so much depressed, but 
rather compressed; bristly at base; upper mandible curved at the tip; tongue bifid at © 
the tip. ‘The colour of all the species is olive, more or less inclining to yellow.— 
Ene. Ep. 
