RHIPIDURA. 53 



The young resemble the adult, but the back and wing-coverts 

 are margined with rufous. 



Bill, legs, and feet black ; iris brown. 



Lengt h about 7 ; tail 3-7 ; wing 3-2 ; tarsus *8 ; bill from 

 gape -7. 



Birds of this species from Burma are characterized by a nearly 

 total absence of white spots on the wing-coverts and by the presence 

 of more white on the chin and throat ; to this race Hume has 

 given the name of burmanica. I do not propose to keep it dis- 

 tinct, as the specimens of this species in the British Museum from 

 Burma are very few, and the characters pointed out above may 

 prove to be accidental or variable. 



Distribution. The whole Empire, ascending the Himalayas to 

 4000 or 5000 feet. This species is apparently rare from Assam 

 down to Tenasserim, but is found in suitable localities all over the 

 tract. It occurs in Ceylon, but not, so far as is known, in the 

 Andamans and Nicobars. 



Habits, tyc. Breeds from February to August, having two or 

 more broods. The nest, composed of fine grass and coated with 

 cobwebs, is generally placed on a stout branch of a tree, or some- 

 times in a fork, and is cup-shaped. The eggs, usually three in 

 number, are white or cream-coloured, marked with greyish brown, 

 and measure about *G6 by '51. 



605. Rhipidura albicollis. The White-throated Fantail 

 Flycatcher. 



Platyrhynchus albicollis, Vie-ill. Nmiv. Diet. it Hist. Nat. xxvii, p. 13 



Rhipidura fuscoventris, Frankl. P.Z.S. 1831, p. 117; Horsf. $ M. 



Cat. i, p. 144. 

 Leucocerca fuscoventris (Frankl.}, Blyth, Cat. p. 206 ; Jerd. B. I. i, 



p. 451 ; Hume, N. $ E. p. 200. 

 Rhipidura albicollis ( Vicill.), Anders. Yunnan Exped., Aves, p. ('>">< ; 



Shftrpe, Cat. B. M. iv, p. 317; Oates, B. B. i, p. 266 ; iff. in 



Humes N. 8f E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 35. 

 Leucocerca albicollis (Vieill.), Ball, S. F. vii, p. 211; Huine, Cat, 



no. 291 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 160 ; Hume, S. F. xi, p. 104. 



The White-throated Fantail, Jerd. ; Chok-dayal, Beng. ; C/iak-dil, in 

 the N.W. Provinces ; Natn-dit-nom, Lepch. 



Coloration. Crown, lores, sides of the head, and angle of the 

 chin black; a short supercilium white; throat white, extending 

 laterally to the sides of the neck, the bases of the feathers black, 

 causing the white to appear dull; with these exceptions the whole 

 plimmge is dark sooty brown ; tail dark brown, all but the middle 

 pair of feathers broadly tipped with white. The female does not 

 differ from the male. 



The young have the back and wing-coverts tipped with rufous, 

 the lower plumage fringed \\ith rufous, and the white supoc- 

 ciliuin and white on the throat barely indicated. 



