90 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OP BIRDS. 
differently varied with white and black. One of the 
most characteristic of these singular birds is the Fluvi- 
cola cursoria *, of the size of a lark ; but some are 
nearly equal to a small thrush. Perspicilla, so called 
from the naked fleshy lobe which surrounds the eyes 
like spectacles, is the next genus ; this is succeeded by 
Alectura, one of the most distinct and well defined 
groups in the whole circle of ornithology t: the remark- 
able developement of the tail feathers in this group only 
finds a parallel in the genus Vidua among the finches, 
and that of Gallus on the rasorial circle. Besides these 
genera, there are several black and white coloured birds 
having a general resemblance 
to the foregoing, which would 
seem to enter among the water- 
chats ; yet, as we have not suf- 
ficiently analysed the group, 
we must leave this point unde- 
termined : among these are the 
white-headed tody of the old 
writers, which is either a Ty- 
rannuta or an aberrant Fluvi- 
cola, as well as the Muscicapa 
leucocilla of Hahn (Jiy. 149-), 
which, in outward appearance, 
so much resembles a manakin, that it may possibly 
prove a representative of that family in the present 
circle. 
(103.) In the subfamily of Psabianas, to which Alec- 
tura immediately leads, there are but three ascertained 
genera. These birds, like their representatives, Monacha 
arid Psarisoma, depart considerably from the types of 
this family : the bill is less depressed than any other of 
the flycatchers, and its structure is altogether stronger 
• Zool. in. ii. pi. 4(6. 
f Why M. Vieillot, who first characterised the genus, subsequently 
abandoned it by uniting it to the overloaded group o( Muscicapa, has never 
been explained. This, however, in the present state of science, is of no 
consequence; since it does not, according to our analysis, belong even to 
the same subfamily. 
