Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/56

42 595. Niltava macgrigoriae, The Small Niltava.

Phoenicura macgrigoriae, Burton, P. Z. S. 1835, p. 152.

Niltava macgrigoriaj (Burton), Blyth, Cat, p. 174 ; Horsf. $ M. Cat. i, p. 288 ; Jerd. B. L i, p. 475 ; Hume, N. ty E. p. 214 ; Wald. in Blyth, Bird* Burm. p. 102 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi, p. 231 ; SJiarpe, Cat. B. M. iv, p. 465 ; Hume, Cat. no. 315 ; id. S. F. xi, p. 113 ; Gates, B. B. i, p. 299 ; id. in Hume's N. fy E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 21.

The Small Fairy Blue-Chat, Jerd. ; Phatt-tagrak-pho, Lepch.

Coloration. Male. Upper plumage bright purplish blue ; fore- head, supercilium, rump, upper tail-coverts, and a patch on each side of the neck cobalt-blue ; lesser wing-coverts brown, tipped with blue ; median coverts entirely blue ; greater coverts and quills dark brown, edged with blue; median tail-feathers entirely blue, the outer webs of the others blue, the inner dark brown ; lores, feathers at base of the upper mandible and those in front of and below the eye black ; cheeks, ear-coverts, chin, throat, and breast purple ; the breast occasionally ashy like the abdomen ; remainder of the lower plumage ashy, becoming albescent on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; under wing-coverts ashy white.

Female. Upper plumage olive-brown, tinged with rufous ; tail rufous-brown ; wing-coverts and quills brown, edged with rufous- brown ; forehead and sides of the head mixed brown and fulvous ; a patch of brilliant blue on each side of the neck ; lower plumage ochraceous buff, paling on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; under wing-coverts and axillaries pure white.

The young nestling is streaked with fulvous.

Bill black ; legs reddish black ; iris dark brown (Jerdon).

Length nearly 5; tail 2-1; wing 2-6; tarsus '7; bill from gape -6. Distribution. The Himalayas from Garhwal to Assam from about 3000 to 5000 feet elevation ; the Khasi hills ; North Cachar hills ; Manipur; Karennee; Northern Tenasserim.

Habits, $c. Breeds from April to June, constructing a nest of moss, sometimes, it is said, on the ground, at other times in the hole of a trunk of a tree. The eggs are described as being white or stone-coloured, freckled with brownish purple or brownish pink, and measure about '76 by '53.

Genus PHILENTOMA, Eyton, 1845.

The two Flycatchers which constitute the genus Pliilentoma are birds of peculiar coloration, maroon and chestnut entering into its composition.

In this genus the sexes are dissimilar. The bill is very large and coarse, and its base is covered by the frontal plumelets ; the wing is rounded, and the first primary is much longer than half the length of the second ; the tail is square. Both species are resident, and they have all the habits of the typical Flycatchers, catching insects on the wing.