Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/30

16 moss under the roots, or near the base, of a tree. The eggs are said to be pale grey "or brownish white marked with brownish red, and to measure about -68 by -44.

567. Cyornis leucomelanurus. The Slaty-blue Flycatcher.

Digenea leucomelanura, Hodgs. P. Z. S. 1845, p. 26 ; Horsf. $ M.

Cat. i, p. 294 ; Hume, N. # E. p. 216 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iv, p. 459, pi. xiii.

Digenoa tricolor, Hodgs. P. Z. S. 1845, p. 26; Horsf. % M. Cat. i, p. 294.

Siphia tricolor (Ilodgs.), Blyth, Cat. p. 172; Jerd. B. I. i, p. 478; Brooks, S. F. v, p. tfli_Hume, Cat. no. 318. .

8. B. xh'ii, pt. ii/p. 15 ; Hume, Cat. no. 320.

Siphia minuta, Hume, Ibis, 1872, p. 109 ; id. S. F. vii, p. 376 ; id. Cat. no. 318 bis.

Digenea cerviniventris, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iv, p. 460 (1879) ; Salv. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. (2) vii, p. 388.

Cyornis leucomelanurus (Hodgs.), Oates in Hume's N. fy E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 3.

The Brown-winged Flycatcher, The Slaty Flycatcher, Jerd.

Coloration. Male. Upper plumage and the margins of the wing-coverts and tertiaries dull blue ; forehead and eyebrow greyish blue; lores and sides of head black ; upper tail-coverts and tail black, the basal half of all the tail-feathers, except the middle pair, white ; quills brown, edged with pale rufous ; chin and throat white, and the remainder of the lower plumage pale fulvous-grey ; sometimes the whole lower plumage including the chin and throat is a pale buff.

Female. "Whole upper plumage olive-brown, tinged with rufous on the rump ; upper tail-coverts and tail ferruginous ; a fulvous ring round the eye ; lores and sides of the head mixed fulvous and brown ; wings brown, margined with pale rufous ; chin, throat, and middle of the abdomen whitish; remaining lower plumage ochraceous.

The young nestling has the upper plumage brown streaked with fulvous and the lower plumage fulvous. Bill black; legs dark brown; iris brown (Coclcburn).

Length about 4'5 ; tail 2 ; wing 2-4 ; tarsus '75 ; bill from gape *5.

In Sikhim males the chin and throat are generally white and the lower plumage pale. Birds from Shillong and Manipur become much darker ; and to such a dark bird from the latter locality Sharpe gave the name Digenea cerviniventris. I do not think the two forms are more than races.

Distribution. The Himalayas from Murree and Kashmir to Sib- sagur and Sadiya in Assam ; the Khasi hills ; Manipur ; Karennee. This species is found up to 7000 or 8000 feet. Habits, fyc. The nest of this Flycatcher is a massive little cup