STOPAROLA. 



579. Stoparola melanops (Vigors). The Verditer Flycatcher. 



Eumyias melanops (F*Y/.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 463. 



Stoparola melanops ( Vig.\ Hume, Rough Draft X. fy E. no. 301. 



The Verditer Flycatcher breeds throughout the outer ranges o 

 the Himalayas at elevations of from 4500 to 9000 feet, from 

 Assam to Afghanistan. They lay from April till the middle of 

 July. 



The nests of this species that I have seen in the neighbourhood 

 of Simla were soft masses of moss, lined with very fine moss-roots, 

 or composed almost entirely of these latter, measuring 4 or 5 inches 

 in diameter externally, and with a central depression about 2 to 3 

 inches in diameter and about 1 to 14 inch in depth, in which the 

 eggs \vere placed. The nests rather convey the idea of a mass of 

 materials having been heaped together, and the birds having 

 formed the egg-cavity by pressure on the centre of the mass, than 

 of having been regularly built in the usual acceptation of the word. 

 Nests, found on the 19th April and the 25th May near Kungbee 

 (Darjeeling), at a height of about 5000 feet, the one in a crevice of 

 a rock, the other in the wall of a shed, were precisely as above 

 described ; but at times they are more regularly cup-shaped. As 

 to the localities in which the nest is placed, the following notes 

 sufficiently explain this ; but I would mention that I have once 

 seen one, as figured by Mr. Hodgson, resting on the fork of a 

 branch. Four is certainly the normal number of the eggs. 



From Murree Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes : " The Ver- 

 diter Flycatcher always builds under the small wooden bridges 

 that cross the hill-paths. We found more than half a dozen nests 

 all situated under these bridges. The eggs are pale pink and 

 sometimes have a few fine speckles on them. Breeds in June, at 

 an elevation from 4000 to 7000 feet." 



From Dhurmsala Captain Cock sent me the following note : 

 " Nidificates in April and May in the North-west Himalayas. 

 Nest is composed of green moss externally, lined with black fibres, 

 cup-shaped and deep, diameter of the inside of the cup from 2| 

 inches to *2\. Nest is usually placed by the side of a road or 

 nullah under some very overhanging bank, often under some low 

 bridge of the hill-roads on one of the rough supports. On two 

 occasions I found the nests in decayed trees, but never at a height 

 of more than 5 feet from the ground. Parent birds sit very close, 

 and may sometimes be caught on the nest. Lays four eggs ; when 

 fresh of a pinky white, with minute faint brick-red marks, having 

 a tendency to form a zone round the larger end. Afer they have 

 been blown, the egg becomes a very faiut buff-colour, with the 

 aforesaid marks." 



At Mussoorie Captain Hutton records that this " is a common 

 .species throughout the mountains up to about 12,000 feet during 

 summer, arriving about the beginning of March. It breeds in May 

 and June, making a neat nest of green moss in holes of trees, in 



