BRACHYPODINai. 
19 
the hot latitudes of Western Africa and Oriental India; 
and have derived their name from three or four very 
long bristles, which 
spring from the back 
of the neck or from 
the nape {^fig. 123). 
Although these ap- 
pendages are very 
well defined, and 
nearly three times 
the length of the surrounding feathers, they are yet so 
delicate as frequently to have escaped the scientific eye ; 
hence many of the species have been overlooked. It is 
probable that these curious birds, like the Drongos, 
capture insects upon the wing ; for although their tail 
is not forked, yet the bristles round the bill are even 
longer and more rigid than those of the generality of 
fly-catchers. The two groups further resemble each 
other in the shortness of the feet and the length of 
the hind toe. The next genus has been named Phyl- 
lasfrephus, from one of the species, according to Le 
VaiUant, loving to shelter and hunt among heaps of 
dead leaves. We know, as yet, but of two, and these are 
from the African continent: the long straight bill of these 
fcirds is continued to the genus Micropm, Sw., but we 
now have a shortness of foot so remarkable that the 
tarsus is not even as long as the hind claw. Nature 
seems to have been very sparing of all these forms, 
since of Micropus also we know at present but of four 
examples. On reaching the typical genus Jiraehypus, 
We have a perfect and a most interesting assemblage of 
types, the five «tti»genera exhibiting a beautiful illus- 
tration of the five genera composing the entire circle. 
The pretty little Hira scapularis of Dr. Ilorsfield, one 
of the most familiar birds of Java, connects Micropus 
with Srachypus, since it has the bill of the first and 
the toes of the last. The plumage is bright, and the 
feathers on the rump and back so long and soft, that 
c 2 
