FLYCATCHER 275 
like a collar round the neck. A fourth European species, I. parva, 
distinguished by its very small size and red breast, has also strayed 
several times to the British Islands. This last belongs to a group 
of more eastern range, which has received generic recognition 
(possibly well deserved) under the name of Erythrosterna, and it has 
several relations in Asia and particularly in India, while the allies 
of the Pied Flycatchers (Ficedula of Brisson) are chiefly of African 
origin, and those of the Grey or Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa 
proper ') are common to almost the whole Palearctic area. 
One of the most remarkable groups of Muscicapidx is that known 
as the Paradise Flycatchers, forming the genus Terpsiphone of 
Gloger (Tchitrea of Lesson). In nearly all the species the males 
are distinguished by the growth of exceedingly long feathers in their 
tail, and by their putting on, for some part of the year at least, a 
plumage generally white, but almost always quite different from 
that worn by the females, which is of a more or less deep chestnut 
or bay colour, though in both sexes the crown is of a glossy steel- 
blue. They are found pretty well throughout Africa and tropical 
Asia to Japan, and seem to affect the deep shade of forests rather 
than the open country. The best-known species is perhaps the 
Indian 7. paradisi; but the Chinese 7. incii, and the Japanese 
T. princeps, from being very commonly represented by the artists 
of those nations on screens, fans, and the like, are hardly less so ; 
and the cock of the last named, with his bill of a pale greenish- 
blue and eyes surrounded by bare skin of the same colour—though 
these are characters possessed in some degree by all the species— 
seems to be the most beautiful of the genus. 7. bourbonnensis, 
which is peculiar to the islands of Mauritius and Réunion, appears 
to be the only species in which the outward difference of the sexes 
is but slight. In TZ. corvina of the Seychelles, the adult male is 
wholly black, and his middle tail-feathers are not only very long 
but very broad. In 7. mutata of Madagascar, some of the males 
are found in a blackish plumage, though with the elongated median 
rectrices white, while in others white predominates over the whole 
body ; but whether this sex is here actually dimorphic, or whether 
the one dress is a passing phase of the other, is at present undeter- 
mined. Some of the African species, of which many have been 
described, seem always to retain the rufous plumage, but the long 
tail-feathers serve to mark the males ; and the whole group deserves 
more investigation than it has yet received, as it is likely to reveal 
facts of importance in regard to the theory of ‘‘ Sexual Selection.” 
On the other groups of the Family there is not room to descant. 
A few are distinguished by the brilliant blue they exhibit, as 
Myiagra azurea, and others, as Piezorhynchus chrysomelas, by their 
1 By some writers this section is distinguished as Butalis of Boie, but to do 
so seems contrary to rule. 
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