MUSCICAPIN^. 457 



Sub-fam. MuscicAPiNiE. 



Bill depressed, moderately wide, slightly hooked and notched 

 at the tip ; rictal bristles moderate ; wings moderate, more or 

 less rounded ; tail moderate ; tarsus short, or slightly lengthened, 

 moderately strong ; feet small, or moderate, chiefly of small size. 



This sub-family is composed of a considerable number of genera 

 from the Old World and Australia, that ao-ree in having a more 

 or less depressed bill, short tarsi and feet, and which live on 

 insects that they chiefly capture in the air, a few descending to 

 the ground for a moment to pick one up, or snapping one off a 

 leaf or twig. They differ from the last in their bill being less 

 typical than in the Mi/iagrincB, i. e. less depressed, smaller, and with 

 the rictal bristles shorter. 



In many the plumage of the young is more or less spotted, as in 

 the young of the Saxicolinm and the Thrushes ; and Blyth and 

 Horsfield remove them, the former completely, and the latter 

 partially, from the Flycatchers, placing them in the series of Saxi- 

 coline birds. Gray, however, in his Genera, and Bonaparte in his 

 Conspectus, retain them all in the MuscicapidcB, in which I quite 

 agree with them. Most of the genera classed by the two last- 

 named ornithologists in this family have the bill wider and more 

 depressed than any of the SaxicoIincB, and their habits correspond 

 to this ; the Stonechats rarely capturing insects except on the 

 ground. To remove some of them, merely because their young- 

 are coloured as in other groups, is, I think, taking too narrow a 

 view ; but that they grade to a certain extent into the SaxicolincB 

 I fully admit : still I prefer to keep them separate as a natural 

 group. Of the extent of this sub-family, I cannot speak with 

 precision. Gray, indeed, includes in it all of the last sub-family, and 

 some American birds, such as Setophaga and its allies. Bonaparte, 

 with more precision, excludes the American Flycatchers, and separ- 

 ates the MyiagriiKB, as we have already done, and divides the 3Ius- 

 cicapidce into two groups, Muscicapece, nearly confined to the Eastern 

 Fly-catchers ; and MelanornithecB, subsequently raised to the rank 

 of a sub-family under the name of Monarchina^ for a group of Fly- 

 catchers, chiefly from the oceanic region, Australia, and a few from 

 Africa, and many with dark or black plumage. 



3 M 



