232 MUSCICAPID.E. 



other tail-coverts black : all the lower parts of the body pure 

 white. The legs, toes and claws, black. 



The whole length of the bird five inches and one-eighth. 

 From the carpal joint to the end of the longest primary three 

 inches and one-eighth : the first quill less than half the length 

 of the second ; which nearly equals the fifth, and is shorter 

 than the fourth ; the third is the longest in the wing. 



An adult male in the breeding season, as represented in 

 the upper figure of the woodcut, resembles the bird just 

 described but has the upper part of the head and neck 

 dark brownish-black ; the back of a decided black ; and the 

 primaries and secondaries brownish-black. 



An adult female, killed in summer, wants the white frontal 

 patch ; the head, neck, back, and wing-coverts, dark hair- 

 brown ; primaries brownish-black ; greater coverts and ter- 

 tials edged with dull white ; tail-feathers as in the male, 

 but less bright : under parts dull white. 



A young male of the year, as represented in the lower 

 figure, killed near London in Septembe]-, wants the white 

 frontal mark ; the head, neck, back and wing-coverts are 

 dark hair-brown, as in the female, the last edged with 

 yellowish-white ; primaries, secondaries and tertials, black ; 

 the latter margined with white, but their edges not so broad 

 as in the adult male : the tail-feathers precisely as in the 

 old male ; chin and under tail-coverts white ; breast, belly 

 and flanks, dull white tinged with pale brown. 



The genus Muscicapa has been split into several divisions, 

 and, by some authors, the Spotted Flycatcher is made the 

 type of a genus Butalls and the Eed-breasted Flycatcher 

 that of ErytJtrosterna. It does not seem expedient here 

 to follow the example. Muscicapa collar is, a species much 

 resembling the present, has been said to have occurred in 

 this country but proof of the fact is wanting.* 



* Mr. Edwin Brown has recorded (Mosley's Nat. Hist, of Tutbury, p. 385, 

 pi. (5) the occurrence in Derbyshire of two examples of Vircusylriu oliracca, a bird 

 which though often called a Flycatcher boloiigs to the very distinct and purely 

 American family Vireonida'— a. group having perhaps same affinity to the 

 OrioUila. 



