448 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



whole day. One flew on board a ship in which I was a passenger 

 in the Bay of Bengal, between Madras and Vizagapatara, in 

 October 1836, and remained three or four days in the rigiing. 

 Blyth tells me that he has kejjt it for many months in a large 

 aviary, where it subsisted on the flies which were attracted by the 

 odour of the shrimps, with which various small waders and others 

 were daily supplied. 



289. Tchitrea affinis, A. Hay. 



Muscipeta apiid Hay, J. A. S., XV., 292.— Blyth, Cat. 1226 — 

 HoKSF., Gat. 109. 



The Burmese Paradise Flycatcher. 



Descr. — Adult male — Whole head and neck, with crest, glossy 

 black ; the rest of the body white ; the feathers of the back, with the 

 black shafts more developed than in the last species ; the lengthened 

 middle tail-feathers being black-shafted throughout their whole 

 length, and often more or less conspicuously margined throughout, 

 both externally and internally, with black. 



The adult female is coloured as in the male, but the caudal 

 feathers are broader. 



The young male has the head, with crest, glossy black ; the nape 

 somewhat glossy dark ashy ; the throat, neck and breast, and upper 

 part of abdomen, shining ashy, paling and becoming white on the 

 lower part of the abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts ; upper 

 plumage bright chesnut. Young females have the head black ; the 

 nape, throat, neck and breast, dark ashy ; the abdomen lighter ; the 

 upper plumage chesnut, with strong black shafts on the tertiaries. 



Billj feet, and irides, as in the last. Length 8 to 8^ inches ; 

 wing 3f ; tail 4 ; middle tail-feathers 10 to 14 inches 



Mr. Blyth notices that, in one specimen, the pair of rectrices 

 next the middle feathers were 7 inches long. 



This is a smaller species than the last, the crest is not so long, 

 and the feathers composing it are more equal and commingled into 

 an uniform surface ; and the lengthened tail-feathers also are more 

 narrow, and not so long. The white birds are uot always very 

 distinguishable from those of the last species ; for in some specimena 

 the central tail-feathers want the black shaft in part of their length. 



