432 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



Species. 



a 1 . Tail uniform blackish brown; upper surface of body dusky or ashy brown; 



upper tail-coverts like back. 

 ft 1 . Breast and sides of body smoky brown somewhat streaked with gray. 



sibirica* (p. 432) 



& 2 . Breast and sides of body white, feathers with wide shaft-streaks of smoky 



brown or gray griseosticta (p. 433) 



a 1 . Tail ferruginous, its feathers with dark brown outer webs; back and rump 

 ferruginous ferruginea (p. 434) 



304. HEMICHELIDON SIBIRICA (Gmelin). 



SIBERIAN FLYCATCHER. 



Muscicapa sibirica GMELIN, Syst. Nat. (1788), 1, pt. 2, 936. 

 Hemichelidon sibirica SHABPE, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1879), 4, 120; 



Hand-List (1901), 3, 204; BLASIUS, Ornis (1888), 10 of reprint; 



GATES, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1890), 2, 5, fig. 3 (head) ; GATES and 



REID, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1903), 3, 250; MCGREGOR and WORCESTER, 



Hand-List (1906), 70. 



Palawan (Platen). Eastern Siberia, Altai Mountains, Japan; China in 

 winter. 



"Adult male. General color above brown; least wing-coverts uniform 

 with the back, the greater series dark brown witli lighter brown tips to 

 the median series, the greater coverts tipped with whitish; primary - 

 coverts and primaries dark brown, the secondaries edged with pale brown, 

 whitish at the tips; tail dark brown; lores buffy white; in front of the 

 eye a dusky spot ; round the eye a ring of buffy white feathers ; feathers 

 below the eye and ear-coverts brown like the crown ; cheeks white, mottled 

 with brown bases to the feathers ; throat white, widening out on the lower 

 part and separated from the cheeks by a broad moustiu-hial line of brown ; 

 breast and sides of body ashy brown the former slightly mottled with 

 grizzly white edgings to the feathers; abdomen and under tail-coverts 

 pure white; thighs brown; under wing-coverts light tawny, with dusky 

 bases to the feathers, the quills ashy brown with an edging of light 

 tawny to the inner webs. 'Upper mandible dusky black ; lower mandible 

 yellowish brown, tipped with dusky ; legs and feet brownish black ; iris 

 dark brown.' (Armstrong.) Length, 124; culmen, 10; wing, 80; tail, 

 56; tarsus, 127. 



"Observation. The description is from a specimen collected by Dr. 

 Radde in Eastern Siberia on the 18th of May, 1856, and therefore in full 

 breeding plumage. Examples from other parts of China and the Hima- 

 layas are similar, but great variation takes place in this species as regards 



* Sharpe, Hand-List (1901), 3, 204, recognizes H. fuliginosa as distinct from 

 H. sibirica and gives Palawan as one of its localities. A flycatcher collected by 

 Platen in Palawan is recorded by Blasius as H. sibirica and I have met with no 

 reference to H. fuliginosa from that Island except as given by Sharpe. 



