FLY-CATCHER. 



509 



Musdpeta Paradisi. This species has been called 

 by various names, such as the Paradise fly-hunter, 

 crested long tailed pie, pied bird of Paradise, and a 

 number of others. It has a bluish-green crest on the 

 head. The body is white ; the tail wedge-shaped, 

 with the two middle feathers much produced in the 

 male birds, but considerably shorter in the female. 

 The body measures about six inches in length, and 

 the tail fourteen. It is, however, very liable to vary ; 

 for it occurs of smaller dimensions also, with most of 

 the upper parts pale-chesnut, likewise with the breast 

 bluish-ash. Hence it has been thrice described by 

 Brisson under different designations ; and hence the 

 Jfusdcapa Paradisi, and the Turdus Paradisiacus of 

 Gmelin, are both females of the present species. 

 Klein mistook it for a crested thrush, Mohring for a 

 Monedula, and Linne for a Corvus. It is a native of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, Bengal, and Madagascar, where 

 it haunts the mangroves, or the borders of rivers. 

 Most of this genus, or subgenus are, indeed much more 

 frequenters of the humid parts of warm countries 

 than the genus Tymnuus, so that they are much more 

 resident in the same locality, and live more exclu- 

 sively upon insects. 



The Royal Fly-hunter (Musdpeta regia"), which 

 hus been described as the royal tody, the king of the 

 fly catchers, and various other names, is a very hand- 

 some bird. It is brown on the upper part, and white 

 with lines of brown on the under. The crest is 

 spreading, and stands over the head like a parasol, 

 the general colour brown, but the tips of the feathers 

 black, the chin and eyelids arc white, the bill brown, 

 and the legs flesh-colour, the length of the bird is 

 about seven inches. It is described as being one of 

 the South American species ; but it inhabits the depths 

 of the forests and is rarely seen. 



The Miller Fly-hunter (M. pristinana) is a small 

 species about, the same size as the Cape tit. It is oi 

 a reddish brown colour ; and inhabits southern Africa, 

 where it gels the name of the miller, from the male 

 making a constant clicking sound like that of the 

 "clack" of a corn mill. 



The species of these birds distributed over the 

 richer and warmer parts of the world, are very nume- 

 rous, and some of them are so rich in the tints o' 

 their colour, and so gay in their produced feathers, tha 

 they have, in many instances, been confounded witl 

 the' birds of paradise, from which, however, they an 

 quite distinct, both in their structure and their habits 

 They have also been not unfrequently confonndec 

 with* the todies, from which they differ widely, a 

 these last are syndactylic birds, having some affinit; 

 with the kingfishers, and none at all with any of th 

 fly-catching family. Their numbers are so many how 

 ever, and their history is so complicated and so im 

 perfect, that we cannot enter further into detail. 



Platyrhynchus, which have the bill considerably 

 larger and broader, should perhaps be made either 

 separate sub -genus, or a section of the present one 

 The greater number of them inhabit the warmer part 

 of America. They are numerous, but there are lev 

 materials for any particular description of them. 



Those which have the tarsi long and the tail shor 

 inhabit nearer the ground, and use their feet mnc 

 more than the others , and they in some of the spe 

 cies, which are not very numerous, approach to th 

 character of the thrush. 



MUSCICAPA, or the fly-catcher properly so callec 

 has, like the rest of the family, the bill considerabl 



epressed, but it is not so broad in proportion, and the 

 pper mandible has a prominent ridge on the culmen. 

 'he upper mandible is hooked at the tip, and gene- 

 ally much notched. There are strong hairs at the 

 ase of the bill, which partly cover the oval, basal, 

 nd lateral nostrils. The tarsus is about the same 

 ength as the middle toe, and the outer and inner toes 

 re, generally speaking, of the same length with each 

 then 



The species of fly-catchers, as enumerated in the 

 ooks, are very many ; but as it does not appear that 

 ic sub-division formed by Cuvier, has been very cor- 

 ectly applied to them, it is not very easy to say 

 vhich, especially of the less known ones, should be 

 aken into the list, and which excluded. Indeed 

 he difference upon which Cuvier's sub-division is 

 ounded, is sometimes so light, and the softer billed 

 pecies are so apt to have the forms of their bills 

 Itered before they are placed in Museums, that the 

 (rawing of exact lines of distinction among so many, 

 vould be no easy task. The probability is, that the 

 rue fly-catchers are all inhabitants of the eastern con- 

 inent or the eastern islands, while the American ones, 

 vhatever names may be given to them, belong rather 

 o the sub-genus tyrannus. 



In Europe it is the general habit of those birds to 

 )e migratory ; and though some of them range pretty 

 P ar northward upon the continent, they are confined 

 ,o the south east of the British islands. The reason 

 of this is perfectly obvious, and it throws some light 

 ipon the real cause of migration in birds. The 

 ilimate of Britain is warmer than that of continental 

 countries ; but the northern parts of Britain do not 

 range into nearly so high latitudes, as those of the 

 continent ; and they contain fewer woods and marshes, 

 and are thus less favourable to the production of in- 

 sects. So striking is the difference in this respect 

 that, while the damp forests and margins of the 

 streams in Lapland, within the polar circle, are 

 literally pestered with insects during the summer, to 

 a degree little short of what prevails in the damp 

 forests of tropical America, one may traverse the bare 

 hills and even the banks of the streams of the north 

 of Scotland a whole summer's day, without seeing 

 a single fly. The account given is highly improba- 

 ble, and partakes not a little of that romance and cre- 

 dulity which attach so much to the regions of the 

 north ; but it has been stated by authors who can be 

 supposed to have had no intention of misleading their 

 readers, that those birds winter as far to the north as 

 Lapland, though there is no well authenticated ac- 

 count of the same species even summering in Britain 

 as far to the northward as the most genial parts of 

 Scotland. 



There are several fly-catchers which visit Europe, 

 and two at least which make annual excursions to the 

 British islands. The two British species are the 

 spotted fly-catcher Musdcapa grisola, and the pied 

 fly-catcher Musdcapa atncapilla. 



TJie spotted Fly-catcher. This bird arrives late in 

 the British islands, seldom till near the month of 

 May ; and it departs generally in September. It is 

 about six inches in length ; brownish on the upper 

 part, with a trace of red on the shoulders, a pale 

 streak over the eye, the crown of the head spotted 

 with darker brown, and the quills and tail feathers very 

 dark. The under part is brownish, with dusky shafts 

 to the feathers on the breast, and dusky spots on their 

 webs. The bill is dusky ; the sides hazel, and the 



