ALSEONAX. 435 



Genus ALSEONAX Cabanis, 1850. 



The genus Alseonax is similar to CuUcicapa and Hemichelidon, having 

 a very broad bill, but the rictal bristles are fewer and shorter than in 

 CuUcicapa; the first primai-y is pointed and but little longer than the 

 primary-coverts. The sexes are alike in colors, being earthy brown above 

 and white below. The species are migratory. 



397. ALSEONAX LATIROSTRIS (Raffles). 

 BROWN FLYCATCHER. 



Muscicapa latirostris Raffles, Trans. Linn. Soc. (1822), 13, 312. 



Alseonax latirostris Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1879), 4, 127; Hand- 

 List (1901), 3, 206; Gates, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1890), 2, 35, 

 tig. 14 (bill); Gates and Reid, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1903), 3, 251; 

 McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 71. 



Butalis latirostris Tweeddale, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1878), 284. 



Bongao (*) ; Negros {Everett) ; Sulu (*). Ceylon, Indian Peninsula, Burmese 

 provinces. Greater Sunda Islands, Moluccas, eastern Siberia, Japan, China. 



"Coloration. — Upper plumage ashy brown, the feathers of the crown 

 with darker centers; tail dark brown, the outer feathers very narrowly 

 tipped with whitish; wings and coverts dark brown, all but the prima- 

 ries broadly edged with ashy white; lores and a ring of feathers round 

 the eye white; sides of head brown; lower plumage white^ tinged with 

 ashy on the breast and sides of the body. 



"The young have the crown blackish, streaked with fulvous; the 

 upper plumage and wings with large terminal fulvous spots; the lower 

 plumage like that of the adult but mottled with brown. After the 

 autumn molt and till the following spring the young are very rufous. 



"Bill black, the base of the lower mandible yellow; mouth orange; 

 iris brown; legs and claws black. The young bird has the whole bill 

 yellow except the tip, which is dusky. Length rather more than 137; 

 tail, 51; wing, 71; tarsus, 13; bill from gape, 18." (Oates.) 



"Young. — Differs from the adult in being flammulated above, the 

 feathers having large ovate spots of ochraceous buff in their centers, the 

 wing-coverts and quills being edged with rufous-buff; sides of face light 

 brown, streaked with buff; under surface of body white, mottled with 

 dusky brown edgings to the feathers; upper tail-coverts and edges to 

 the tail-feathers rufous. 



"Observation. — Considerable variation takes place in this species, but 

 only as regards the color of the brown upper surface, which differs in 

 intensity, and as regards the brown on the chest; this varies in extent, 

 being sometimes broad, sometimes narrow, and occasionally dissolved 



* The islands of Bongao and Sulu are given here on the authorily of Sharpe's 

 Hand-List. 



