NILTAVA. 39 



Coloration. The whole head, neck, and breast ashy, darker on 

 the crown, the feathers of which are obsoletely centred with 

 brown ; lower plumage bright yellow ; under wing-coverts pale 

 yellow; lores and the edges of the eyelids whitish ; hack, rump, 

 scapulars, and upper tail-coverts greenish yellow ; wings and coverts 

 dark brown, the outer webs of all the feathers edged with greenish 

 yellow; the lesser coverts edged on both webs; tail dark brown, 

 the outer webs of all the feathers except the median pair broadly 

 edged with greenish yellow. 



Iris dark hazel ; bill brown, paler at the base and gape; mouth 

 yellow ; legs yellowish brown ; claws horn-colour. 



Length about 5;' tail 2 m 2 ; wing 2*4; tarsus *55 ; bill from 

 gape '55. 



Distribution. The whole Empire except Sind, the Punjab, and 

 Rajputana, from which provinces I have not seen any specimens. 

 This species is a permanent resident on the Himalayas up to 

 8000 feet, and on all the hill-ranges such as the Nilgiris, Khasi 

 hills, &c, but to many portions of the plains it is probably only a 

 winter visitor. The most westerly locality on the Himalayas from 

 which I have examined a specimen is Baramula on the Jhelum 

 river in Kashmir. It is found in Ceylon at about 1000 feet eleva- 

 tion, but it apparently does not extend to the Audamans nor to the 

 Nicobars. This Flycatcher ranges as far as Java and Borneo. 



Habits, Sfc. Breeds from March to June, constructing a small 

 nest of moss against a rock or tree-trunk. The eggs, three or four 

 in number, are whitish marked with brown and grey, and measure 

 about -61 by -43. 



Genus NILTAVA, Hodgs., 1837. 



The genus Niltava contains three species of Flycatchers remark- 

 able for the brilliant plumage of the males. The sexes differ in 

 colour, but both may be recognized by the presence of a bright 

 spot or mark on the side of the neck. Ci/ornis oatcsl approaches 

 these birds in having some bright blue on the side ol the neck, but 

 the patch is of a different character, being connected with the nape 

 and forming a band rather than a spot. This bright mark is more- 

 over absent in the female. 



The Niltavas frequent thick jungle and are less typical in their 

 habits than the species of Oyornis, and they are said to eat berries. 

 They appear to be resident on the Himalayas. Mr. Cripps, how- 

 ever, states that N. sundara and N. macgrigorice are seasonal visitors 

 to Dibrugarh in Assam, but he omits to state at what season they 

 visit that district. 



In Niltava the bill is somewhat compressed laterally and narrow, 

 and the base is covered by a multitude of dense plumelets, which 

 conceal the nostrils; the rictal bristles are moderate in number 

 and in length ; the first primary is large, being quite half the 

 length of the second, and the tail is rounded. 



