5 i8 PERCHING BIRDS. 



being ashy grey; the wing-feathers black with white bases, the tail black-edged 



with white on the outer webs; the forehead white, and a white collar completely 



encircling the hind-neck ; the throat and lower-parts are pure white. 



Red-Breasted The red-breasted flycatcher (M. parva) is a summer visitant 



Flycatcher. o Eastern Europe, occasionally wandering into the western part 



of the Continent. Always a rare local bird, though frequently overlooked, and 



occasionally straggling to the shores of the British Isles on autumnal migration, 



it breeds in beech-forests, constructing its nest in some natural cavity, or between 



a bunch of small twigs and the main stem. The nest is built almost entirely 



WHITE COLLARED AND RED-BREASTED FLY-CATCHER ( nat. size). 



of moss, with a little lichen and hairs ; and the eggs are pale bluish green in 

 ground-colour, freckled with reddish and grryish brown. The song is simple and 

 unpretentious, but the actions of the bird are full of life and energy. The adult 

 male has the upper-parts ashy brown ; the two central tail-feathers being dark 

 brown, and the remainder for the greater part white ; while the cheeks, throat, 

 and fore-neck are clear orange, and the rest of the under surface white. 



Paradise- Commonplace and devoid of anything striking in their plumage, 



Flycatchers, the typical flycatchers agree with a large assemblage of genera in 

 having the tail considerably shorter than the wing. Leaving these, we pass on to 

 consider briefly a much more beautiful but smaller group of genera, in which the 

 tail equals or exceeds the wing in length. From their allies, the paradise- 

 flycatchers (Terpsiphone) are distinguished by the crested head, and the great 

 length of the middle pair of tail-feathers. The bill is very large, much depressed, 



