BIRDS. 193 



in a twisted barbed portion of some 3 inches long. When seen flying 

 some distance oflF, the naked shafts are not readily perceptible, and 

 the whole looks like a large bird chased by two small ones. Both 

 species affect the dark jungles in the hot valleys below 3,000 feet. It 

 is said that they can easily be taught to imitate other birds and noises. 

 In the same places, but keeping still more to the deep shade of trees, 

 is a lovely trogon, Harpacies Hodgsoni. Its prevailing colour is 

 crimson. 



Among the flycatchers, of which there are about 26 species in 

 Sikhim, several being seasonal residents only, the fairy blue-chats are 

 the most remarkable. There are several species, all common in the 

 cool forests between 4,000 and 8,000 feet. The males of them all 

 are brilliantly marked with different shades of glistening blue, but 

 the females are demurely clothed in brown, with the blue of the male 

 confined to a small spot on each side of the neck. Nitidula Hodgsoni, 

 the pigmy blue flycatcher, which occurs about the same elevations, 

 is one of the smallest and prettiest of the Sikhim birds. It is only 3f 

 inches long. Stoparola mclanops, the verditer-flycatcher, breeds in 

 Sikhim at elevations over 5,000 feet, but is absent in winter. It is 

 strikingly coloured, being of an almost uniform verditer-blue, and as it 

 keeps to the road-sides, is one of the best known birds. A beautiful 

 paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone affinis, is found in the very lowest 

 valleys. When in full plumage the male has the head and long-pointed 

 crest black, and the rest of the plumage white with black shafts. Its 

 tail grows to 14 inches in length. The white of the adult male is 

 chiefly replaced in the female and young males with chestnut. There 

 are eight or nine species of wrens, and they are mostly found creeping 

 about among the undergrowth and fallen logs of the forests from 5,000 

 feet upwards, but the prettiest and rarest of them all, Troglodgtos punc- 

 tatus, is found as low as 2,000 feet. Of the true thrush family there 

 are about a dozen representatives. On© or two of them are fair song- 

 sters, the best being Geocichla citrina, a handsome blue and orange- 

 coloured ground thrush of the hot valleys up to about 4,000 feet. 

 The male of Morula houlboul, which is not unlike an English black- 

 bird, but has a grey wing bar, is also a fair songster, it is found 

 abundantly from 5,000 feet upwards. A fieldfare, Plancsticus atro- 

 gidaris, abounds in large flocks in the cold season, but goes further 

 north to breed. A prettily marked mountain-tlirush, Oreocincia 

 dauma, may often be seen turning over the fallen leaves in the lower 

 forests. It is of a brown colour spotted with white and the feathers 

 fringed with black. It is of solitary habits, and rarely is more than 

 one seen at a time. Laughing-thrushes and babblers are numerous 

 both in species and individuals, and mostly occur in the forests and 

 scrub over 5,000 feet elevation, but one or two sjjecies are found down 

 to the bottoms of the hottest valleys They usually feed in small flocks, 



