Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/64

50 young. The sixth bird has a small nape-patch and traces of a throat-bar. This last specimen, therefore, clearly shows that the Ceylon bird does sometimes at least exhibit a throat-patch, and this being the case there is no character by which the two sup- posed races can be separated.

Distribution. The whole Empire east of a line drawn approxi- mately from Mussoorie in the Himalayas to Khandala on the Western Ghats. This species does not ascend the Himalayas above 3000 feet or thereabouts. It occurs in Ceylon and the Nicobar Islands, but is absent from the Andainans, where it is replaced by the next species.

Habits, fyc. Breeds generally from May to August, constructing a beautiful cup of fine grass coated exteriorly with cobwebs and cocoons in the fork of a branch not far from the ground. The eggs, three to five in number, are white or pinkish marked with reddish, and occasionally some purple spots and specks, and measure about -69 by '53. 602. Hypothymis tytleri. The Andaman Black-naped Flycatcher.

Myiagra tytleri, Beavan, Ibis, 1867, p. 324 ; Ball, S. F. i, p. 68 ; Hume, 8. F. ii, p. 217 ; id. N. $ E. p. 199.

Hypothymis occipitalis ( Vig.), Sharpe, Cat. E. M. iv, p. 275 (part.).

Hvpothymis tytleri (Beavan), Hume, Cat. no. 290 ; Oates in Hume's "N. $ *E. 2nd ed. ii ; p. 30.

Coloration. Resembles H. azurea. The male differs from the male of that species in having the abdomen, vent, and under tail- coverts of the same blue as the breast ; the female similarly in having those parts dingy lilac-grey.

The differences pointed out above hold good in a considerable series of the Andamanese bird, and I think that it forms a species easily recognizable from the Continental and Nicobarese form. A richly-coloured Indian bird and a dull Andamanese bird may be difficult to separate, but such pairs of birds are not often met with and do not in my opinion affect the question. Hume recognizes the two species in his Catalogue.

In retaining the Andamanese form under Beavan's name I do so because I am not satisfied that any prior name applies to it with certainty. The forms from the Malay peninsula and the islands do not seem identical with the Andamanese bird, but rather to be referable to H. azurea.

Distribution. The Andaman Islands and the Great and Little Cocos.

Habits, $c. Davison found the nest of this species on 23rd April at Aberdeen, South Andaman, with three eggs. Both nest and eggs resembled those of H. azurea.