80 
PSARIS, 
A more decided group than the preceding, and 
which makes a further step towards the typical cha- 
racters of the genuine flycatchers. The general 
size of these birds is between that of a small thrush 
and a robin ; and all the typical species are inhabi- 
tants of tropical America. They are conspicuous 
to ordinary observers, by their great heads and their 
thick depressed bill, the upper mandible of which 
has the very unusual character of being quite con- 
vex above, so that there is no cubnen or ridge. 
The feet still retain the structure of the Ampelidce, 
being weak, and protected on the sides of the tarsi 
by minute lateral scales ; the wings also are long 
and ample. Of their manners, in a state of nature, 
very little is known. It would seem, however, from 
the observations of Azara, that the typical species, 
like many of the chatterers, are to be seen sitting on 
the tops of lofty forest trees, and the structure of 
their wings show that they are quick fliers. In 
those larger species which form the genus Psaris, 
the bill seems very powerful, and is so abruptly 
hooked at the tip, that it is not surprising that the 
Linnsean writers, and some of the moderns, placed 
the only species then known, Psaris cay ana, with 
