362 
Birds of Celebes: Muscicapidae. 
FAMILY MUSCICAPIDAE. 
The Flycatchers form a large family of small birds, varying in size from 
that of a Wren to that of a Lark, of which Sharpe as long ago as 1879 
recognised 69 genera, while Newton (1893) is prepared to admit some 60. Many 
of these afford such near approaches to other families, viz. to the Turdidae, 
Laniidae, Syhiidae and Campophagidae^ that their discrimination is often a matter 
of great difficulty, or is even impossible. They may be distinguished from the 
Campophagidae by not having a dense Cuckoo- or Pigeon-like plumage on the 
rump, and the nostrils not hidden, though some bristles from the forehead pro- 
ject over them; compared with the Sglmidae the Flycatchers have, as Seebohm 
and Oates point out, a mottled plumage when young, whereas the nestling 
Warbler is like its parents, but more brightly coloured; the young Turdidae 
fsometimes the adults) have a mottled or squamose plumage of the type of the 
young Flycatcher, but the Thrushes seek most of their food on the ground and 
their toes and tarsi are longer and stronger, and the nostril is exposed, not 
overlapped by any hairs from the forehead (Oates); the typical Laniidae may 
be recognised by their strong bills, with a hook with a notch and a “tooth” 
behind it, but the prominence of this character fades away in other forms, 
and there seems to he no perfect criterion for distinguishing them from the 
Flycatchers. 
In the Muscicapidae the bill is generally broad and weak, furnished with 
a small notch near the tip, the gape fenced with bristles, a few projecting from 
the forehead over the nostrils; the first primary varies from very minute to 
about half the length of the wing, 3^^ — 5*^ the longest; tail of 12 feathers, rounded 
or square, the middle feathers sometimes lengthened; tarsus and toes rather 
small and weak. They feed on insects taken on the wing, and nest in holes, 
or form cup-shaped nests in the open. 
The Muscicapidae are absent in the New World. The Ethiopian and 
Australian Legions are richest in genera, though nearly equalled by the Oriental 
Legion, the proportions being 22, 21, 20 in the Catalogue of Birds (Sharpe, 
vol. IV), but a large proportion of those occurring in the Oriental Legion are 
found in other regions also. In this family Celebes might have been expected 
to display strong Australian affinities; it has, however, none, since the two 
Australian genera, Wiipidura and Gerggone^ occurring in Celebes pass on much 
further into the Oriental Legion, and for this and other reasons their distri- 
bution can in most cases only be accounted for on the supposition of flight 
across sea-channels. Monarcha and Myiagra are links between Djampea, the Sangi 
Islands, etc. and the Australian Legion, though the species, or subspecies have 
most likely got there by flight. Zeocephus talautensis has its nearest affinities in 
the Philippines, to which the genus was hitherto believed to be restricted. The 
remaining genera of Flycatchers in Celebes — not counting a migratory Musci- 
