Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/28

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MUSCICAPIDÆ.


white on the fore neck ; middle of the abdomen whitish ; vent and under tail-coverts pure white ; under wing-coverts and axillaries rufous- ashy.

Bill black ; legs light brown ; iris deep brown (Limbory).

Length about 7 ; tail 3 ; wing 3*6 ; tarsus '9 ; bill from gape 1. Distribution. Muleyit mountain in Tenasserim up to 5000 feet.

This species has also been found on the mountains of Perak in the Malay peninsula.

Habits, fyc. A forest bird, found constantly on trees, and never descending to the ground.

565. Cyornis hodgsoni. The Rusty -breasted Blue Flycatcher.

Siphia erythacus, Jerd. $ Blyth, P. Z. S. 1861, p. 201 (nee Blyth) ; Jerd. B. I. i, p. 480 ; Hume, S. F. ii, p. 458 ; Godw.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xliii, pt. ii, p. 158 j Hume, 8. F. v, p. 137 ; Hume fy Dew. S. F. vi, pp. 233, 510 ; Hume, Cat. no. 322 j id. S. F. xi, p. 115. Siphia hodgsonii, Verr. N. Arch. Mus. vi, Bull. p. 34 (1870), vii, p. 29 ; David, op, cit. ix, pi. 4, tig. 4.

Erythrosterna sordida, Godw-Aust. J. A. S. B. xliii, pt. ii, p. 158 (1874); Hume, S. F. iii, p. 392. Poliomyias hodgsoni (Verr.), Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iv, p. 203 ; Gates, B. B. i, p. 286. The Rusty -breasted Flycatcher, Jerd.

Coloration. Male. The whole upper plumage slaty blue ; lores, cheeks, under the eye, and the upper tail-coverts black ; sides of the head and neck slaty blue ; wing-coverts brown edged with cyaneous ; quills black edged with brown ; tail black, the base of all the feathers except the middle pair white ; chin, throat, breast, and abdomen orange-chestnut; lower abdomen, vent, flanks, and under tail-coverts pale ferruginous.

Female. Upper plumage olive-brown, tinged with fulvous on the upper tail-coverts ; tail brown, edged on the basal half with fulvous- brown ; wing-coverts and quills brown edged with fulvous-brown, and the greater coverts tipped with the same ; lores whitish ; a pale ring round the eye ; sides of the head olive-brown tinged with rufous ; lower plumage ashy brown, the abdomen whitish.

The young bird is not known.

The legs and feet vary from dusky liver-brown to plain dark brown ; the bill in one bird entirely black, in other two blackish, horny grey on base and lower ridge of rami of lower mandible ; iris deep brown (Hume).

Length about 5-5 ; tail 2-2 ; wing 2-8 ; tarsus -65 ; bill from gape '55.

C. luteola is an allied species found outside our limits and differs chiefly in having a considerable amount of white on the wing-coverts of both sexes. It was to this species that Blyth first applied the name Siphia erythaca (J. A. S. B. xvi, p. 126, 1847;. Subse- quently he and Jerdon reapplied this name to the Indian species, for which, under these circumstances, the term, erythaca cannot be used.