90 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 
differently varied with white and black. One of th 
most characteristic of these singular birds is the Fluvi. 
cola cursoria *, of the size of a lark; but some are 
nearly equal to a small thrush. Perspicilla, so called 
from the naked fleshy lobe which surrounds the eyes 
like spectacles, is the next genus: this is succeeded by 
_.Alectura, one of the most distinct and well detined 
groups in the whole circle of ornithology t: the remark- 
able developement of the tail feathers in this group only — 
finds a parallel in the genus Vidua among the finches, _ 
and that of Gallus on the rasorial circle. Besides these - 
genera, there are several black and white coloured birds 
having a general resemblance 
to the foregoing, which would 
seem to enter among the water- 
chats ; yet, as we have not suf= 
ficiently analysed the group, 
we must leave this point unde- 
termined : among these are the 
white-headed tody of the old 
writers, which is either a Ty- 
rannula or an aberrant Fluvi- 
cola, as well as the Muscicapa 
leucocilla of Hahn ( fig. 149.), 
which, in outward appearance, 
so much. vealed a manakin, that it may possibly 
prove a representative of that family in the present 
circle. 3 
(103.) In the subfamily of Psar1ana, to which Alec- 
tura immediately leads, there are but three ascertained 
genera. These birds, like their representatives, Monacha 
and Psarisoma, depart considerably from the types of 
this family : the bill is less depressed than any other of 
the flycatchers, and its structure is altogether stronger 
* Zool. Ill. ii. pl. 46. 
+ Why M. Vieillot, who first characterised the genus, subsequently 
abandoned it by uniting it to the overloaded group of Muscicapa, has never | 
been explained. This, however, in the present state of science, is of no 
consequence; since it does not, according to our analysis, belong even 
the same subfamily. 
