26 MUSCICAPID^;. 



I found with eggs last June and July, the birds were in the chest- 

 nut plumage, and in that one case the male was white and the 

 female chestnut. The Myuas destroyed three nests of one pair of 

 Paradise Flycatchers that built in a mango-tree near my house. 

 I saw the little Flycatcher defend her first nest for nearly twenty 

 minutes against a Myna that at last retired. Next day, however, 

 the nest was torn to bits, by the Myna I suppose. It was twice 

 rebuilt on other branches of the same tree, with the same result." 



The only note I have on the breeding of this bird in Southern 

 India is one by Mr. C. J. "W. Taylor, who remarks that it breeds in 

 Mysore in July. 



Colonel Legge writes of the nidification of this bird in Ceylon : 

 " Mr. Parker writes me that the Paradise Flycatcher breeds about 

 Madewatchiya in April and May. Layard mentions having found 

 a nest at Tangalla, in the fork of a satin wood tree, and that the 

 nest was 'a neat well-built cup-shaped structure, compose.! exter- 

 nally of mosses and lichens and lined with hair and wool.' " 



The eggs are miniatures of the warmer-coloured types of Bu- 

 clianya ater ; in shape they are, like these, typically a rather long 

 oval, somewhat pointed towards one end. The ground-colour 

 varies from pale pinkish white to a warm salmon-pink, and they 

 are more or less thickly speckled, chiefly at the large end (where 

 there is a tendency to form an irregular cap), with rather bright, 

 but somewhat brownish-red, spots. Amongst the markings at the 

 larger end a few tiny, pale, inky-purple blotches often occur. 

 There is often a faint gloss on some of the eggs, but, as a rule, 

 they are dull and glossless like the rest of the eggs of this family. 

 I have seen eggs of the European Spotted Flycatcher not differing 

 very widely from these except in shape, the eggs of the European 

 bird being typically shorter, if not broader. 



In length the eggs vary from O75 to O85 inch and in breadth 

 from 0-56 to 0*65 inch, but the average of twenty eggs is O81 by 

 0-6 inch. 



599. Terpsiphone affinis (Hay). The Burmese Paradise Flycatcher. 



Tchitrea affinis (Hay), Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. 448. 

 Muscipeta affinis (Hay), Hume, Cat. no. 289. 



Writing from Pegu, Mr. Gates says : " This species is common 

 in the hills and not rare in the plains. It may occasionally be seen 

 in the cholera-camp hills in Thayetrayo ; the males in April are 

 generally in the chestnut plumage, but a fine male shot on the 21st 

 May, which was undoubtedly breeding, was in the white plumage. 



" I found the nesfc in the evergreen forests of the Pegu Hills on 

 the 30th April. It was placed near the top of a small sparsely 

 branched sapling. 



*' The interior of the nesfc is a perfect hemisphere ; exteriorly the 

 depth is rather greater than the diameter 



Interior diameter, about 2| inches. 

 Exterior 3 to 4 inches. 



