Genus— STIPITURUS. 
Stipiturus Lesson, Traite d’Ornith., livr. 6, p. 
414, Feb. 13, 1831. Type (by monotypy) Muscicapa malachura Shaw. 
V ery small birds with short bills, short rounded wings, extraordinary tail of 
six filamentose feathers, and long legs and small feet. 
The bill is short and stout for the size, the culmen arched, laterally 
compressed with little basal expansion ; the nasal groove short, the linear 
nostrils placed anteriorly in the groove, strongly operculate, a few small 
nasal bristles not projecting over the nostrils; six rictal bristles, strong and 
prominent ; under mandible stout, interramal space small, less than half 
the length of the mandible and fully feathered. 
The wing is short and rounded, the first primary short, less than half 
the third which is less than the ninth, and just exceeds the secondaries, the 
second being shorter ; the fourth to eighth subequal and longest. 
The tail is very long, and is composed of six very long narrow feathers 
forming a long wedge ; the feathers showing disintegrate webbing, making 
the genus unique in character. 
The legs are long for the size of the bird and slender, the tarsus booted 
in front and bilaminate posteriorly ; the feet are small, the hind toe and 
claw longer than the middle toe and claw, the hind claw being longer ; the 
outer and inner toes are subequal and with the claw equal to the inner toe 
alone. 
The relationships of this peculiar little form appear to be with Cisticola, 
and I suggest it is descended from an ancestral Cisticoline form which reached 
Australia and penetrated into Tasmania, and that the recent Cisticola is a 
late immigrant which has extended over Australia since Tasmania was 
separated. It is noteworthy that Stipiturus is practically restricted to 
extra-tropical Australia and is found in all that area, including Tasmania. 
Key to the Species. 
Ear-coverts blue, crown of head rufous 
Ear-coverts brown, crown striped with dark brown 
ruficeps. 
malachurus. 
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