i8o JUNGLE FOLK 



although it frequently emits a cheeping note. Its nest 

 is a very beautiful structure, a ball of moss which is 

 attached to a moss-covered tree or rock, more often 

 than not near a mountain stream. 



Fly-catchers usually nidificate in the neighbourhood 

 of water, because that element favours the existence 

 of their insect food. 



Siphia parva — the European red -breasted fly- 

 catcher — is a species which visits the plains of India 

 in the cold weather, but not many individuals pene- 

 trate so far south as Madras. This bird is easily 

 recognised, since the cock bears a strong likeness to the 

 famihar English robin red-breast. I may here mention 

 that an allied species — the Indian red-breasted fly- 

 catcher, S. hyperythra — summers in Kashmir and 

 winters in Ceylon, but, curiously enough, it has not been 

 recorded from the plains of India. It would thus seem 

 to fly from Kashmir to Ceylon in a single night. Even 

 so, it would be very extraordinary if an occasional 

 individual did not fail to perform the whole journey in 

 so short a space of time ; therefore, this species should 

 be watched for in South India in spring and autumn. 

 It is easily distinguished from alhed species by a 

 black band which surrounds the red breast and 

 abdomen. 



As it is impossible to detail in one brief essay all the 

 species of fly-catcher found in the Indian hills, I propose 

 merely to mention those that are most common in the 

 Nilgiris and the Himalayas, and then to make a few 

 observations on fly-catchers in general. In addition to 

 the fan-tail, the grey-headed and the brown fly-catchers, 



