Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/125

Rh

The Long-winged Blue Chat, Jerd.

''Coloration. Male. Wing'', tail, greater wing-coverts, primary-coverts, and winglet black ; remainder of plumage bright smalt-blue, most brilliant on the rump and upper tail-coverts.

Female. The whole plumage brown with a bluish tinge, the rump and upper tail-coverts decidedly blue ; the head, back, sides of head and neck, and the whole lower plumage except the flanks streaked with fulvous-white ; wings and tail brown ; the quills with a patch of white near the base, forming a wing-spot ; some of the secondaries tipped white ; under tail-coverts broadly edged with white.

The young resemble the female closely, but they have the streaks broader and extending on to the flanks. The young male probably assumes the adult plumage at the first autumn moult; before finally acquiring it some of the feathers of the head and neck are fringed with brown.

Bill and feet jet-black ; iris dark brown (Jerdori). Length about 9 ; tail 3'6 ; wing 5'8 ; tarsus 1'15 ; bill from gape 9.

Distribution. The highest parts of the Himalayas from Garhwal to Sikhim. Blanf ord did not meet with this species below 15,000 feet in Sikhim, and he observed it as high as 17,000 feet. It extends into the mountains of Tibet and Western China.

Habits, &c. Probably found in pairs in the summer, but in flocks in the winter ; described as having the flight of a Starling, and feeding on the ground on insects.

The genus Notodela contains one species, which is largely distributed from Nepal to Tenasserim. The sexes are very different,

Fig. 34. Head of N. leucura.

the male being blue and the female rufous, but both sexes have a large amount of white on the tail, which is considerably longer than twice the tarsus.