no 
MTJSCICAPINJ3. 
the remainder differing entirely from those of its 
congener. Now this spurious quill is the great and 
universal character of all the genuine flycatchers of 
Europe, Asia, Africa, and New Holland, while 
among those of America not a single instance of 
such a structure has yet fallen under our observa- 
tion*. The student, therefore, if all other distinc- 
tions fail, has but to examine the wing of a fly- 
catching bird, to know at once whether it is a na- 
tive of the New or the Old World ; whether in fact 
it belongs to the genera hereafter-mentioned, Todus 
or Muscicapa ; the first, with one exception t, being 
an American, while the latter is an Old World 
group. But that the ornithologist may nn'c clearly 
comprehend these distinctions, we shah take this 
opportunity of explaining them more fully. 
The wings of the paradise fly-catcher, a most beau- 
tiful though common bird, will give us a perfect idea 
of that structure, which, with very slight variations, 
runs through all the Old World Museimpince. The 
general form of this member, although by no means 
short, is nevertheless rounded ; that is, the outer- 
most feathers, instead of being the longest, as in the 
swallows, are much shorter than those which are 
nearest to the body, and, from being of different 
lengths, they are termed graduated. The first quill 
* The sub-genus Ptiliogenr/s is more a Ceblepyris than a 
tyrant Fly-catcher ( Tyramnna ). 
+ The sub-genus Plaiystera , (J. and S.) peculiar to Western 
Africa, being the nearest point of that continent to America. 
