Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/29

Rh I have examined the types of E. sordida obligingly sent me by Godwin-Austen and I find them to be the females of the present species.

Distribution. Specimens of this species have been obtained in Sikhitn (March and April) ; Shillong (no date) ; Japvo peak, Naga hills, at 6000 feet (January) ; Manipur (February and April); Karen hills near Toungngoo at 4000 feet (January) ; pine-forests, JSalvveen (February) ; Muleyit mountain (January and February). This Flycatcher extends into China.

566. Cyornis hyperythrus. The Rufous-breasted Blue Flycatcher.

Dimorpha superciliaris, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xi, p. 190 (1842, nee Jerd.}.

Muscicapa hyperythra, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xi, p. 885 (1842).

Muscicapula rubecula, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xii, p. 940 (1843).

Siphia superciliaris (Bl. Blyth, Cat. p. 172 ; Jerd. B. I. i, p. 480 ; Blanf. J. A. S. B. xli, pt. ii, p. 159 j Hume, Cat. no. 321 ; id. S. F. xi, p. 115.

Digenea superciliaris (BL), Horsf. $ M. Cat. i, p. 293 ; Hume, N. $ E. p. 216.

Muscicapula hyperythra (Bl.), Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iv, p. 206.

Cyornis hyperythrus (Bl.), Oates in Hume's N. 8f E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 2.

The Rufous-breasted Flycatcher, Jerd.

Coloration. Male. Forehead, lores, chin, and cheeks black ; a frontal band extending to the posterior part of the eye white ; the whole upper plumage, sides of the head, and wing-coverts slaty blue ; quills brown, the primaries and secondaries edged with rufous ; tail brown suffused with slaty blue, and the bases of all the feathers except the middle two pairs white; throat and breast orange- chestnut, paling below the breast and becoming white on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; sides of the body tinged with brown ; axillaries white.

Female. Forehead, lores, and a conspicuous ring round the eye fulvous ; sides of the head fulvous-brown with paler shafts ; upper plumage olive-brown, the wings edged with ferruginous and the tail suffused with rufescerit olive-brown ; lower plumage ochraceous, pale on the throat and abdomen, bright on the breast, the flanks infuscated.

The young are streaked with fulvous above and on the sides of the head, and the lower parts are fulvous with black margins on the feathers of the breast.

Legs and feet very pale silvery to fleshy pink, the terminal joints of the toes and the claws slightly brownish ; bill black ; iris deep brown (Hume).

Length about 4'5 ; tail 1-6 ; wing 2-3 ; tarsus *7 ; bill from gape 5.

Distribution. The Himalayas from Garhwal to Sikhim ; the Khasi and Naga hills; Manipur. This species breeds in the Himalaya* and also in the Khasi hills, whence I have seen specimens obtained in .July and August.

Habits, &c. According to Hodgson this species makes a nest of