CHLOROPETA NATALENSIS. 
feathers short, bristly, and rather directed forwards : bristles at the angles ot 
the mouth long, and moderately rigid. Tarsi moderately strong, anteriorly 
scutellated, posteriorly entire; toes rather strong; claws long, slender, 
pointed, and considerably curved. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. Lines. 
Length from the point of bill to the 
base of the tail 3 4 
of the tail 2 6 
bill to the angle of mouth 0 9-J 
wings when folded 3 0 
Inches. Lines. 
Length of the tarsus 1 0 
outer toe 0 3^ 
middle toe 0 
inner toe 0 3| 
hinder toe 0 3-| 
The colours of the male not known. 
The specimen of which the foregoing is a description, the only one which has come 
under my observation, was killed when perched on the summit of a small shrub, on the 
margin of a dense thicket near to Port Natal. On opening its stomach, its food was found 
to be small insects. 
Though I have put this bird forward as the type of a group, I am not satisfied that it 
will continue to hold that position when all the species of Muscicapidai shall be carefully 
re-examined. As the groups arc at present constituted, I have not. been able to find one in 
which our species could, with propriety, be placed, therefore I have considered it wiser to 
keep it separate than to place it in one to which it would appear to be but little related. 
Were it not that the bill is rather more lengthened than that of the species of the group 
Muscipeta, the bristles of the gape much fewer, and the plumage very different in character, 
it, in other respects, bears a resemblance to young birds of the genus just mentioned. 
