78 FLYCATCHERS. 



coast. For these reasons it is little known as a 

 Bombay bird. 



From a Mahomedan tradition we learn that the 

 Paradise Flycatcher belongs to that unhappy class 

 who are spoken of as having u seen better days." 

 At one time it was a truly glorious bird, clad from tip 

 to toe in dazzling white and adorned with a magni- 

 ficent tail of snowy plumes. But it gave way to pride 

 and got so puffed up at length that it presumed to 

 compare itself with the Birds of Paradise and claimed 

 a place among them. For this it was shorn of its tail 

 and utterly disgraced. It repented, however, and 

 Allah was merciful and allowed it to retain two of the 

 feathers of its tail, but he blackened its face that it 

 might never forget its shame. 



Our second fancy Flycatcher is the Fantail, Jerdon's 

 Leucocerca pectoralis. This is quite another style. 

 It is a little bird of a squat figure and smoky brown 

 colour, with white eyebrows and a merry face, but no 

 particular points except the length and breadth of its 

 tail. But there is not a jollier spirit among creatures 

 clothed in feathers. With wings dropped after the 

 manner of a turkey-cock, and tail not obtrusively 

 stuck up but held gracefully and spread like a half- 

 open fan, it waltzes and pirouettes among the lower 

 branches of a shady mango tree, 



So buxom, blithe, and debonnair, 



that I always feel prompted to stop and ask it, " Pry- 

 thee, why so gay ? " Every few second it executes a 

 wonderful flourish in the air to capture a fly, or 

 lets off its tinkling little song. In March or 

 April it chooses a fork of some under-branch of a 

 shady tree, and toils merrily with its mate to fit in a 



