208 MUSCICAPID/E. 



Karin Hills. Davison got it in Tenasserim, where he says it is apparently 

 confined to the forests of the outer Tenasserim range and adjacent spurs. It 

 is said to occur commonly in Arrakan, also in Sikkim. It is generally seen in 

 pairs flitting restlessly about trees, catching small insects on the wing ; has 

 a sharp twittering note not unlike that of M. paradisi, and is continually 

 snapping its beak, going from branch to branch with a short, jerky, tumbling 

 flight. It has the peculiar habit of dancing about with tail outspread. 



The Fantail breeds throughout India and in the wooded sub-Himalayan 

 tracts, also in all the warmer valleys of the outer Himalayan ranges from Debroo- 

 ghur to Murree, in Eastern and lower Bengal, and in the forest districts of 

 Central India, in Raipoor, and the tributary mehals, and doubtless in suitable 

 localities throughout Southern India. The breeding season lasts from May 

 to July. The nest is a solid, compact, tiny structure, made of grass and coated 

 with cobwebs, and placed in a fork of a tree not far from the ground. In 

 shape it is like an inverted cone. The eggs, three in number, are oval, fawn- 

 yellowish or greenish white, marked with grey specks and spots ; size 0*65 X 

 0-49. 



Rhipidura perlata (S. Mull.) is described from Borneo and Sarawak, but as 

 it is not certain whether the specimens were from the portions of country 

 belonging to the British, it is not included in the Avifauna. The upper 

 surface is of a dark slate colour, duller on the external edges of the wing 

 coverts ; upper tail coverts black ; cheeks, throat and breast slaty grey spotted 

 with white, the latter with large ovate spots ; centre of abdomen and under tail 

 coverts white. 



Hab. The Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra and Borneo. 



235. Rhipidura javanica, Sparrm., Mus. Carls. \\\. pi. 75 ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Br. Mus. vi. p. 332; Oates, B. Br. Burm. i. p. 267. Leucocerca 

 javanica, Salvad. Ucc. Borneo, p. 135; Bl. B. Burm. p. 132; Hume and 

 Dav., Sir. F. vi. p. 226 ; Hume, Sir. F. viii. p. 92 ; ix. p. 175 (footnote). 

 Leucocerca infumata, Hume, Str. P. i. p. 455 ; Tweedd. Ibis, 1877, P- 316. 

 The JAVAN FANTAIL. 



Male. Forehead, crown and sides of the head sooty brown ; the whole 

 upper plumage and the wings brown, washed with rufous ; tail dark brown, 

 the four outer pairs of feathers broadly tipped with white, the pair next these 

 narrowly tipped white ; supercilium white ; chin and a band across the upper 

 breast blackish brown ; flanks, thighs and axillaries brown, the latter broadly 

 edged with white ; under wing coverts mixed black and white ; the rest of 

 the lower plumage white; bill black, fleshy at base of lower mandible; irides 

 thrown. 



Length. 7-5 inches; wing 3; tail 3-6 ; tarsus 075; oilmen 07. 



