326 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



with lighter brown ; throat, chest, and sides of body suffused 

 with yellowish-buff, the abdomen and under tail-coverts white. 

 Total length, 4/9 inches ; wings, 2 - 6. 



Young. Mottled all over, the upper surface being ochraceous- 

 buff, with dusky brown edges to the feathers ; upper wing- 

 coverts with ochraceous tips ; under surface light ochraceous- 

 buff, with dusky tips to the feathers. 



Range in Great Britain. An occasional visitor, having been 

 captured near Falmouth, in the Scilly Islands, in Norfolk, 

 Yorkshire, Berwickshire, and once in co. Kerry, Ireland. 



Range outside the British Islands. The breeding home of the 

 Red-breasted Flycatcher extends from Central Europe as far 

 east as Turkestan, and, it is said, to Lake Baikal. Many writers, 

 however, have confounded it with the eastern Red-breasted 

 Flycatcher (Siphia albicilld), which breeds in Eastern Siberia 

 and Northern China, and wanders south in winter to Southern 

 China and the Burmese countries, reaching in the Indian 

 Peninsula to Nepal and the neighbourhood of Dinapore in the 

 plains. On the other hand, S. parva is a western bird, occu- 

 pying in winter the western and central districts of India, 

 coalescing with the range of S. albidlla in Eastern Bengal, but 

 extending south to Mysore and the Nilghiris. In Europe it 

 breeds in the Baltic Provinces and the St. Petersburg district, 

 and has been met with as a straggler in other parts of Europe, 

 having occurred in South Sweden, Denmark, Heligoland, the 

 south-east of France, and Mr. Howard Saunders believes 

 that it visits the south-west of Spain occasionally. To the 

 Mediterranean countries, however, it is principally known as 

 a winter visitor. 



Habits. Although this little species has more in common 

 with the Spotted Flycatcher than the Pied Flycatcher, Mr. 

 Seebohm describes its habits as differing from those qf both 

 the last-mentioned birds. He says that they reminded him 

 both of a Flycatcher and a Tit, as he saw it catching insects 

 on the wing with ease, and also fluttering before the trunk of 

 a tree to pick an insect off the bark. The song was unobtru- 

 sive, something between the notes of a Robin and a Redstart. 

 " The alarm-note was a ' pink^ pink, pinkj something like the 

 spink of a Chaffinch, but softer, clearer, and quicker." 



