96 
COCK-TAILED WATER-CHAT. 
Alectura Azarii , Swains. 
PLATE VI. 
Above blaekisli, edged with grey ; ears, shoulder-covers, mar- 
gins of the quills, and under plumage, white ; breast and 
sides of the neck with a black collar, almost obsolete in 
front. 
Le Petit coq., Azarii ed. Sonnini , iii. 447. — Muscicapa alec- 
tor, PI. Col. 155 ; fig. 1, male ; 2, female. — Muscicapa 
alectura, Vieill. Cal. PJ. 132. 
It is but justice to the memory of the great Spanish 
naturalist Azara, who first made known to us this 
extraordinary group of birds, that one of the species 
should be recorded by his name, especially since that 
of Alector is but a repetition of Alectura ; and it is 
quite impossible to determine whether M. Vieillot’s 
short description of his Alectura tricolor (which, in 
another part of the same work*, he calls Gallita 
tricolor ) is intended for this or some other species. 
In its manners, as detailed by Azara, may be re- 
cognized all the prominent characteristics of the 
true water-chats. It prefers open tracts in the 
immediate vicinity of water, but never enters into 
* Analyse d’une Nouv. Om. p. 39 and 68. 
