SE1SURA. 
137 
was occasionally spread out in tlie same manner ; a 
fact confirmed by what has been published of its 
manners. It is a mistake, however, to suppose 
that this bird has no bristles at the gape ; for 
although they do not reach to half the length of the 
bill, which is uncommonly long, they are neverthe- 
less very stiff, and there are several others, slightly 
recurved, over the nostrils. We have already re- 
marked how intimately this form appeared connected 
to the American water-chats, although we strongly 
suspected that future analysis would show that it 
belonged to the circle of Rhipidura. This ■Opinion 
has been so strongly confirmed by a subsequent 
investigation, that we now place it at once as the 
tenuirostral sub-genus, a station which at once 
reconciles all the opinions that have been formed of 
it, and all that is known of its very peculiar, man- 
ners. Occupying the most aberrant situation in 
the present genus, it is consequently that which 
unites Rhipidura to the Fluvicolince : as the tenui- 
rostral type, it represents, in a most remarkable 
manner, its prototypes among the todies and the 
flycatchers, namely, the sub-genera Platpstera and 
Hyliota, both of which have very long bills, — the 
primary character of all tenuirostral types. Mr. 
Caley, who seems to have possessed much tact 
in observing the habits of the Australian birds, 
observes of this : — “ I have often considered it, 
when I witnessed its manners, to be the wagtail of 
the colony*.” And such it truly is. The wagtails, 
* Linn. Trans, xv. 250. 
