121 
RHIPIDURA (Hors, and Yig.), 
we begin with, that group which shows the nearest 
affinity to the Fluvicolince, or Water-chats. It 
will be remembered, that on a former occasion* we 
placed the Australian genus Seisura, conditionally, 
within the confines of the Fluvicolince, though with 
very considerable doubt ; expressing, at the same 
time, a strong suspicion that it truly belonged to 
the present division. This opinion has been fully 
confirmed by subsequent investigations ; and we 
shall here attempt to refer it to its true rank and 
station among its congeners. The typical characters 
of the fan-tailed flycatchers may be gathered from 
what has already been intimated in our attempt to 
make out their analogies : their chief distinction, as 
their name implies, is exhibited in a very broad 
and rounded tail, which the bird is constantly in 
the habit of opening or expanding in the shape of a 
fan; next to this, in importance, is the general 
strength of their feet, as seen mpre particularly in 
three of the typical sub-genera, the tarsus of which 
is much larger than in any genuine flycatcher yet 
discovered. The bill exhibits nothing very peculiar 
or strikingly different from the typical flycatchers, 
except, indeed, that the sides, towards the end, 
* Class, of Birds, vol. ii. p. 89. 
