506 PASSERIFORMES CHAP. 
orchards, forests, and low jungles; they feed chiefly upon fruits, 
including berries and seeds, but also upon insects, which dAetho- 
rhynchus, Aegithina, and Chloropsis in especial seek among the 
leaves and branches of the trees. The ordinary note is a mellow 
cheerful whistle, becoming a pretty song in such species as Pycno- 
notus haemorrhous, and P. xanthopygus, the Ceylon and Palestine 
“ Nightingales”; chatterimg and chirping sounds are, however, 
often heard, while Criniger, Phyllostrephus and Hypsipetes 
habitually utter reiterated jarring or croaking cries, particularly 
when roosting in company. The flimsy, or occasionally bulky, 
nests of twigs, fibres, grass, moss, and cobwebs are placed in low 
trees, bushes, creepers, or bamboo-clumps; Aegithina, Chloropsis, 
and Jrena generally laying two or three white or greenish eggs 
with brown streaks or spots, and the remaining forms from two 
to four, of a pinkish white or salmon colour, with markings of 
various reds and purples. The nest of Jo/e is suspended by the 
rim like that of an Oriole. The Perso-Arabic Bulbul of poets is 
probably Daulias hafizi, a true Nightingale. 
Fam. VI. Muscicapidae.—The Old World Flycatchers are a 
eroup of somewhat vague definition, Hemipus appearing closely 
allied to the Laniidae, Cryptolopha to the Sylviinae, Lioptilus to 
the 7imeliidae. Connexion with the 7'urdinae is unplied by the 
more or less spotted plumage of the young, though the metatarsus 
is usually scutellated anteriorly. Typically the bill is broad 
and flat, with stiff rictal and prominent nasal bristles; it is 
extremely wide, with the culminal ridge strongly developed in 
Machaerorhynchus, Myiagra, Bias, and Smithornis ; Sisura has it 
longer and more slender; Chelidorhynx short, with a pronounced. 
hook; and the diminutive Smicrornis exceptionally small; while 
many species have if much less robust. The feet, usually weak, may 
be stronger, as in Chloropeta ; the wings, ordinarily elongated and 
pointed, and especially so in Hemichelidon, are at times abbre- 
viated and rounded, as in WVi/tava, whereas the secondaries in 
Platystira and Newtonia nearly equal the primaries, of which the 
outer is very short. The tail is also short in Diaphorophyia, but 
is usually moderate or long, and frequently much graduated, as in 
Rhipidura (Fantail), Elminia, and Terpsiphone, the males of the 
last having the two median feathers twice the length of the body. 
Terpsiphone, Cyanomyias, Bias, Trochocercus, and so forth, have 
fine crests, shorter in the female; while fleshy wattles, round or 
