Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/18

4 The genus Muscicapa contains the Spotted Flycatcher, a common summer visitor to England and Europe.

In this genus the sexes are alike : the culmen of the bill is about as long as twice the breadth of the bill at the forehead ; the rictal bristles are few and moderate in length ; the wing is long and pointed, the first primary being very small and the second very long and equal to the fifth ; the tail is square ; and the plumage is streaked. M. grisola is migratory.

Muscicapa grisola, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 328 (1766) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iv, p. 151 ; Scully, Ibis, 1881, p. 437 ; Gates in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd. ed. ii, p. 1.

Butalis grisola (Linn.}, Blyth, Cat. p. 175; Hume fy Headers. Lah. to York. p. 185; Hume, S. F. iii, p. 467, v, p. 495; id. Cat. no. 299 bis j Biddulph, Ibis, 1881, p. 52 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 163.

Coloration. Upper plumage brown, the forehead, crown, and nape with black centres ; wing-coverts, secondaries, and tertiaries dark brown, rather broadly edged with pale fulvous ; primaries and the

Fig. 2. Bill of M. grisola.

primary-coverts more narrowly edged with the same ; tail dark brown, obsoletely edged paler ; lores greyish white ; a buff ring round the eye; sides of the head brown; cheeks whitish, with an irregular dark moustachial streak below ; lower plumage white, the breast and the sides of the throat streaked with brown ; the sides of the body less distinctly streaked.

The young have the upper plumage pale fulvous, with brown or blackish margins; the wings broadly edged, the lesser coverts broadly tipped, with buff ; the lower plumage whitish, variegated with dark brown.

Legs and feet black ; bill blackish, yellow at the base of the lower mandible ; iris dark brown (Butler).

Length about 6; tail 2-5; wing 3*3; tarsus -6; bill from gape -8.

Distribution. Common from May to September in Gilgit, where this species breeds at elevations over 8000 feet. This bird visits the plains in the autumn, and is found at that season in Sind, Eajputana, Guzerat, Cutch, and Kattywar. Its eastern limit in the