1694 THE PERCHING BIRDS 



The red-breasted flycatcher (M. parva) is a summer visitant to 

 Eastern Europe, occasionally wandering into the western part of the 

 Continent. Always a rare local bird, though frequently overlooked, 

 and occasionally straggling to the shores of the British Isles on autumnal migration, 

 it breeds in beech forests, constructing its nest in some natural cavity, or between 

 a bunch of small twigs and the main stem. The nest is built almost entirely of 

 moss, with a little lichen and hairs, and the eggs are pale bluish green in ground 

 color, freckled with reddish and grayish brown. The song is simple and unpreten- 

 tious, but the actions of the bird are full of life and energy. The adult male has 

 the upper parts ashy brown; the two central tail feathers being dark brown, and the 

 remainder for the greater part white; while the cheeks, throat, and fore neck are 

 clear orange, and the rest of the under surface white. 



Commonplace and devoid of anything striking in their plumage, 

 the typical flycatchers agree with a large assemblage of genera in 

 having the tail considerably shorter than the wing. Leaving these, 

 we pass on to consider briefly a much more beautiful but smaller group of genera, 

 in which the tail equals or exceeds the wing in length. From theif allies, the par- 

 adise flycatchers ( Terpsiphone) are distinguished by the crested head and the great 

 length of the middle pair of tail feathers. The bill is very large, much depressed, 

 and swollen, with numerous long and coarse bristles at the rictus. Distributed all 

 over India and the adjacent regions, the paradise flycatchers have the sexes almost 

 or completely alike for the first two years, when the prevailing coloration of the 

 plumage is chestnut. This dress is never changed by the hen birds, but sometimes 

 after the second autumn the cocks assume a beautiful white plumage, and it thus 

 happens that in some cases both members of a pair may be breeding in the chestnut 

 dress, instead of the male being far more gorgeous than his partner. Writing of the 

 Indian paradise, flycatcher ( T. paradisi} , whose range extends from Ceylon to 

 Kashmir, L,eith Adams observes that in the plains of India ' ' its singularly attract- 

 ive plumage can scarcely escape observation. The adult male has a blue head and 

 white body, with two of the tail feathers prolonged for upward of eight inches be- 

 yond the tip, those in the female scarcely extending beyond a quarter of an inch. 

 The young birds are chestnut. The paradise flycatcher does not possess great 

 power of flight, except when hunting for insects; then its movements are quick. It 

 suddenly appears on a branch beside you, and the next moment is seen shooting 

 like an arrow through the grove, at times uttering a harsh chirp now perched on 

 the upper bough of a tamarind, now on the lower one of a neighboring tree 

 spectre-like it suddenly appears, and is as quickly gone. ' ' The five eggs laid by the 

 hen are pink spotted with brownish red. 



Our notice of the family ma}' be brought to an end by a brief 

 Fs.nt3.il 



Fl cat h mention of the fantail flycatchers (Rhipidura) , which, while differing 



from the members of the preceding genus by the absence of a crest on 

 the head, are distinguished from the other crestless forms of the group by the length 

 of the tail considerably exceeding that of the wing. Possessing a short depressed 

 bill, broad at the base, with the culmen arched, and the upper mandible notched, 

 these birds have the nostrils oval, basal, and nearly covered by the rictal bristles, 



