122 
RHIPIDURA. 
are ratlier compressed ; thus indicating, on the one 
hand, an affinity to Muscicapa, and, on the other, 
to Monacha. The recent acquisition of some inte- 
resting birds from India, which prove to belong to 
this group, has thrown a new light upon others 
which have long baffled our further analysis of this 
group; so that now possessing, as we consider, 
four out of the five leading forms, we shall no longer 
refrain from characterizing them as so many sub- 
genera; submitting to the reader, as we go on, 
those reasons which have influenced this determi- 
nation. These types we shall distinguish by the 
names of Rhipidura (proper), Leucocirca, Mya- 
destes, and Seisura; the first and the last having 
been already proposed by Messrs. Horsfield and 
Vigors. Rhipidura , in this restricted sense, con- 
tains those species only which have the bill remark- 
ably small, and compressed for half its length ; the 
rictal bristles extend to its tip, and ar e very stiff ; 
the tail is particularly broad and fan-shaped, all 
the feathers being slightly graduated ; but the feet 
are not more developed than in the typical fly- 
catchers. The great-headed titmouse of Latham, 
not now existing in any of the London collections, 
is, in all probability, the most typical species ; while 
the fan-tailed flycatcher of the same author, and 
several others, called by him “ varieties,” exhibit 
the same characters. The geographic range of these 
birds appear to be restricted to Australia and the 
smaller islands of the Pacific Ocean. Forster, in 
his voyage round the world, met with one species, 
