80 
FHJVICOLIM3 OR WATER-CHATS. 
and white colour of their plumage. Such are the 
general hahits of the whole group, but it comprises 
several genera, differing in the formation of the tail, 
the bill, and the wings. Of these the most curious 
is Aleelura , first noticed by Azara under the name 
of Le Petit Coq. (Voy. iii. p. 447) ; its tail is broad, 
and, like that of our domestic fowl, it is laterally 
compressed and carried erect ; in one species these 
feathers end in long naked filaments, and in another 
it is greatly forked. Near to these may be placed 
the long- tailed shrike-like flycatcher, another bird 
equally remarkable for the developement of the 
tail ; it is called Yiperu by Azara, and is the 
type of the sub-genus Gulerneles. The fly-catchers, 
in general, are by no means a social family, yet 
nearly all of this division appear to live in small 
societies, frequenting, in little troops, the low 
marshy grounds of South America, where they keep 
up a loud discordant and disagreeable babbling ; they 
are no less distinguished by these peculiarities than 
by their plumage, which is universally varied only 
with different shades of black and white. The 
whole group, as here characterised, is confined to 
tropical America. There are more birds referable 
to this group than to either of the two preceding, 
but it has been so completely overlooked by all sys- 
tematic writers, with the exception of Azara, that it 
is very difficult at present to form a just idea of its 
contents. 
In the foregoing remarks, the reader will perceive 
some peculiarities of the aquatic type, mingled, as 
