220 
MUSCICAPA. 
the probability of its being a true flycatcher ? Some- 
thing, it must be confessed, but not quite ; for rve 
shall now mention a bird as actually having the 
typical feet of a flycatcher, but which, in size, 
colour, and appearance, is so like a robin, that no 
one, even a professed ornithologist, would be able 
to distinguish one from the other, unless the feet 
and the wings were carefully examined. It is, in 
fact, the most extraordinary instance of disguise, or 
rather of complete analogy, that has ever occurred 
to our observation in the whole animal kingdom. 
Let the reader suppose a robin before him , and he 
has an exact picture of our Muscicapa erytkaca. A 
single specimen of this bird is in the Paris Museum ; 
nor were we perfectly satisfied it was not a decep- 
tive preparation until we examined it most atten- 
tively, for the purpose of seeing that the feet were 
actually united by the skin to the body. It proved, 
however, in this respect, to be perfectly genuine ; 
and we shall now figure and describe it. 
