VII MUSCICAPIDAE 507 



above the eye, of scarlet, blue, or yellow, are found in Ter^jsi- 

 phone, Zeocephus, Diaphoro^jhyia, Platystira, and Arses. The bill 

 is sometimes reddish or blue, and the inside of the mouth green 

 or yellow, as in certain Birds of Paradise. 



The males of our summer visitors, the Spotted and Pied Ply- 

 catchers, Muscicapa grisola and M. atricapilla, are respectively 

 brown with whitish under parts streaked with dusky, and black 

 and white ; the hen-bird being similar in the former case, but in the 

 latter olive-brown, with tlie frontlet, wing-patches, and lower surface 

 buff instead of white. M. {Ery thro sterna) parva, which is brown 

 with grey head, and has a reddish-orange fore-neck that becomes 

 rufous in the female, occurs accidentally in Britain. Platystira is 

 glossy bluish- or greenish-black above with white markings, and 

 white beneath with a black pectoral band, the female having 

 greyer upper parts, and sometimes a maroon chest ; Erythromyias 

 is black and white, with an orange-rufous breast or back ; Pseudo- 

 gerygone is olive-green, brown, or grey above dark crimson in P. 

 rubra with an admixture of black, buff, rufous, yellow, or white, 

 and has similar or yellow tints below ; Chasiempis is brownish, 

 relieved by black, white, and bay; Cvlicicapa is greenish-yellow 

 with a bright yellow lower surface, the head being grey in one 

 species. The hen-bird in these four genera, where known, resembles 

 the male. That sex of Niltava is blackish or purplish, varied with 

 rich cobalt, especially on the neck, the under parts being orange- 

 rufous or purplish -grey ; the female is chiefly olive, often with 

 a blue or lilac neck -patch. Malurus commonly shews a fine 

 mixture of blue, purple, and velvety -black, with a little brown 

 and white ; one of its members is chiefly brown, but has a blue tail, 

 and a lilac crown with black centre ; a second is vermilion, black 

 and brown above, and black below ; a third has crimson in the 

 place of vermilion ; a fourth is bluish- black and white. The hen- 

 birds are mainly brown, often with a blue, or even a green, tail. 

 Piezorhynchus has two metallic black species, while P. chryso- 

 melas is orange-yellow and black ; Ifetaholus is almost white, with 

 black face and throat ; and lastly, Terjjsiphone (or Tchitrea), well 

 known on Chinese and Japanese screens and fans, contains several 

 long-tailed and finely crested white birds, with glossy greenish- 

 black head and throat, and with black markings on the wings and 

 tail in T. paradisi, the Paradise-Plycatcher. The female is rich 

 bay above, with similar head, but grey cheeks and throat. In 



