Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/24

 10 heave been procured from Central Asia having probably found their way thither from the west. This species is found in India from October to April.

Habits, $c. This bird breeds in Europe, making a nest of moss lined with grass and hairs, either against the trunk of a tree or in a hollow of the trunk The eggs are pale green, marked with pinkish brown, and measure about -65 by '53.

Muscicapa albicilla, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso- Asiat. i, p. 462, Aves, tab. i (1811) ; Sharps, Cat. B. M. iv, p. 162 ; Gates, B. B. i, p. 278.

Erythrosterna leucura (Gm.), Blyth, Cat. p. 171 ; Horsf. 8f M. Cat. i, p. 297; Jerd. B. I. i, p. 481.

Erythrosterna albicilla (Pall.), Anders. Yunnan Exped., Aves, p. 621 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi, p. 233; Scully, S. F. viii, p. 280; Hume, Cat. no. 323.

The White-tailed Robin Flycatcher, Jerd.; Turra, Hind.; Chut-ki, Beng.

Coloration. Male. Similar to the male of S. parva, but having only the chin and throat chestnut, and not the breast, which is ashy ; it differs also in the crown being, in freshly moulted birds in good plumage, of the same colour as the back, and in the ear-coverts being brown instead of bluish ashy.

Female. So similar to the female of /S. parva, as to be undistinguishable from it.

I have not been able to examine nestlings of this species, but there is no reason to think that they differ from those of S. parva. The youngest birds I have seen are like the females, but with some fulvous tips to the wing-coverts.

Bill dark brown, yellowish at the gape ; mouth yellow ; iris hazel-brown ; legs and claws black ; eyelids grey. Length about 5 ; tail 2*1 ; wing 2*7 ; tarsus '65 ; bill from gape -6.

Distribution. Visits the Eastern portion of the Empire from October to April, extending on the west as far as Nepal in the Himalayas and Dinapore in the plains, and southwards to Tenasserim. This species summers in Eastern Siberia and Northern China.

Habits, $c. The nest and eggs of this bird do not appear to be known. This Flycatcher frequents groves of trees, running among the larger branches and constantly flitting its tail up and down and partially expanding it.

Siphia hyperythra, Cabanis, J. f. Orn. 1866, p. 391 : Oates in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 2.

rythrosterna parva (Bechst.}, Brooks, J. A. S. B. xli, pt. ii, p. 76, xliii ; pt. ii, p. 245.