232 MUSCICAPID^E. 



The female has the upper plumage olive brown, tinged with fulvous - r the 

 tail is rufous, the forehead and sides of the head are mingled buff and ashy 

 brown ; ear coverts paler shafted ; neck spot blue ; under surface ashy brown, 

 becoming whitish on the abdomen ; front of neck with a white patch. 



The young are dark brown, streaked above and below with fulvous ;, outer 

 webs of wings and tail tinged with blue. No blue neck spot. 



Length. 6'O inches wing 3*1 ; tail 2'S; tarsus 0-85. 



Hab. The Himalayas, extending to the Burmese countries and Western 

 China. (Sharpe). The Rufous-bellied Fairy Blue-Chat occurs in the Punjab, 

 N. W. Provinces, Oudh, British Burmah and Nepaul. It inhabits the whole 

 extent of the Himalayas, being common at Simla, and extending to Assam. 

 About Darjeeling, Jerdon adds it is not rare. It has been recorded from 

 Arrakan and Tenasserim, and Captain Wardlaw-Ramsay procured it in Karin. 

 It frequents thick bushy ground, often near water, is shy and wary, seldom 

 showing itself. It feeds chiefly on insects, which it captures on the ground or 

 picks off leaves and branches. 



It breeds in the Himalayas during April and May. The nest is usually 

 placed on some rocky ridge or crevice, or in some decayed stump of a tree. 

 The eggs are 4 in number, and longish oval, in color pale reddish buff, 

 faintly freckled with dingy ; size 0-93 x 071. 



271. Niltava Vivida, (Swinhoe). Sharp*, Cat. B. Br. Mus. iv. p. 

 463; Oates y B. Burm. i. p. 297. Cyornis vivida, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1.864, p. 363 ; 

 Hume and Dav., Str. F. 1878, p. 229; Hume, Sir. F. viii. p. 92. 

 SWINHOE'S RUFOUS-BELLIED BLUE-CHAT. 



Whole upper plumage, lesser wing coverts and sides of the neck deep 

 purplish blue, becoming ultramarine on the head, rump and upper tail 

 coverts ; a narrow frontal line, lores, and feathers in front of the eye black ; 

 cheeks and ear coverts blue-black ; chin and throat bluish black, the rest of 

 under surface chestnut; central tail feathers blue, the rest black, broadly 

 margined on the outer web with blue ; quills black, washed externally 

 with purplish blue ; lesser and median wing coverts the same ; under wing 

 coverts chestnut ; bill black ; legs and feet dark brown or purplish plumbeous ; 

 irides deep brown. 



Length. 57 to 6 inches; wing 3*25 to 3*5 ; tail 2*65 to 3; tarsus 0*75; 

 culmen 0*5. 



The female is olive brown above, with a grey shade on the mantle ; the lores, 

 feathers at the base of the upper mandible and round the eye are mixed 

 ferruginous and grey ; crown olive brown washed with blue ; median and 

 greater coverts and quills are brown, margined externally with a shade of 

 blue ; tail brown, margined externally with ferruginous ; chin and throat 



