212 MUSCICAPID^E. 



further change, either by moult or other means, and the birds are said to breed 

 and live throughout the rest of their lives in their white plumage. 



239. Terpsiphone affinis, (A. Hay), BL y. A. S. B.xv. p. 292; 



Sharpe, Cat. J5. Br. Mus. iv.p. 349 ; Dates, B.Br. Burn. i. p. 261. Tchitrea 

 affinis (A. Hay\ Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 448,1*0.289; Hume, Str. F. ii. 

 p. 216. Tchitrea paradisi (Lin.), Hume, Str. F. iii. p. 102. Muscipeta affinis, 

 Hume and Dav. t Str. F. vi. p. 223, viii. p. 92 ; Scully, Str. F. viii. p. 274. 

 The BURMESE PARADISE FLY-CATCHER. 



.ThQ whole head and neck black, glossed with blue ; lower plumage, 

 axillaries and under wing coverts pure white ; back, scapulars, rump and 

 upper wing coverts white, with indistinct blackish shaft stripes ; lesser and 

 median wing coverts white, the shafts conspicuously black ; greater coverts 

 and the tertiaries white, the shafts and a portion of the webs on either side black ; 

 primaries black, edged with white ; secondaries black, very broadly edged with 

 white on both webs, the white increasing in extent as the feathers approach 

 the body ; tail white ; the shafts black, except on the central pair, where the 

 shafts turn white towards the tip ; all the tail feathers finely margined with 

 black. The female has the forehead and crown black ; the sides of the head, the 

 chin, throat, breast and a collar round the neck ashy ; the abdomen white, 

 tinged with buff; the flanks and under tail coverts buff; the whole upper 

 plumage, lesser wing coverts and tail chestnut ; the median and greater 

 coverts and all the quills brown edged with chestnut ; the long tail feathers 

 are wanting at all seasons. Young birds of both sexes are similar to the 

 female. The young male in its second year loses the buff tinge on the abdo- 

 men, the ashy parts become darker, and the central tail feathers are replaced 

 by long ones. In this plumage the male probably breeds for the first time ; 

 subsequently the chin and throat, as well as the sides of the head, turn black^ 

 and the white plumage of the adult is assumed either by a moult or, as is very 

 probable, a change in the colour of the feathers only. 



Iris hazel-brown ; eyelids plumbeous, the edges tumid and rich blue; inside 

 of mouth yellow ; bill blue ; the tip and anterior half of the margins black j 

 legs plumbeous blue, claws dark horn colour. 



Length of breeding males as much as 18 inches; of females and non- 

 breeding males about 8 to 9; tail 4; wing 3*6; tarsus 0*68; bill from gape I. 



The tail in adult males is frequently 14 inches in length. (Gates.) 



The Burmese Paradise Fly- Catcher is generally distributed over Burmah. In 

 the plains of Pegu it occurs in large numbers in September and October, in 

 which months it appears to be migrating locally. To the south it extends 

 down the Malay Peninsula to the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, also 

 Flores, and Dr. Tiraud mentions that it is found in Cochin-China. To the 

 north it occurs in the Indo-Burmese countries, ranging into the Himalayas as 



