492 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



red-billed hill-tit (Leiothrix lutea), by dealers in living birds often called 'the Japan- 

 ese robin,' though not occurring at all in Japan. On account of its beautiful colors, 

 its pleasant song, and its tame and gentle manners, it is often kept in confinement, 

 and instances of its having bred in cage are now quite numerous. 



But it is not only the species living in the tropics, and of difficult access, the rela- 

 tionship of which is obscure and disputed. In the accompanying cut are represented 

 two European species, the hedge-sparrow (Accentor modularis), and the Alpine 

 accentor (A. collaris), members of a very small group of birds, scattered over the 

 Palaearctic region, and chiefly noted for the somewhat sparrow-like inflection of the 

 cutting edges of the bill. The former is a very modestly brownish-colored bird, and 

 partial to hedges and bushes, light woods and gardens, while the Alpine accentor is 

 richly tinged with rufous on the back, and very conspicuous for the beautiful 

 black-and-white design of the throat. This species is found in the European Alps, 

 above the tree limit, where in summer it lives among the rocks, coming down in win- 

 ter into the valleys; allied species occur in all the high mountain ranges of the south- 

 ern part of the Palaearctic region. Various authors have placed these birds with the 

 Old World warblers, the thrushes, the tits, the sparrows, the American bluebirds, or 

 the babblers. We have followed the latter course, as quite non-committal, since leav- 

 ing a bird among the Timaliidae means nothing more than saying that its true position 

 is still unknown or doubtful. 



In this country we tasually designate the tyrant-birds as the ' fly-catchers,' a name, 

 however, which properly should be restricted to the members of the Old World fam- 

 ily, the MUSCICAPID^E. They are chiefly characterized by a broad, depressed bill, with 

 heavy bristles at the gape, mostly scutellated lamelliplantar tarsus, a short first (tenth) 

 primary, and a spotted young plumage radically distinct from that of the adults. The 

 propriety of regarding the fly-catchers as a group of family rank may well be ques- 

 tioned, however, at least as it is currently defined and adopted, since it seems to fade 

 gradually into the Timaliidae on one hand, and into the Tui'didae, or thrushes, on the 

 other. 



Two common European species, the spotted fly-catcher (Muscicapa grisold), and 

 the pied fly-catcher (Ficedula atricapilla), are illustrated in the cut as well known 

 members of the family, the former brownish gray, slightly spotted underneath, and 

 both sexes alike, the latter, an adult male, pure black and white, while the female and 

 the young are grayish. I am bound to say, however, that I am inclined to adopt Sun- 

 devall's view of the latter species and its allies, among which are the minute, rusty- 

 throated Erythrosterna, as being only distantly related to the former. Within the 

 conventional limits of this family are included about four hundred species, very differ- 

 ent in structure and plumage, but all limited to the Old World. In the tropics the 

 fly-catchers reach a great development, and many interesting forms, the names of 

 which alone would take Tap too much space, occur. Yet we cannot pass by the Para- 

 dise fly-catchers (Terpsiphone) in silence, adorned as they are more after the fashion 

 of a quezal than that of a bird-of-Paradise, with extremely elongated middle tail- 

 feathers, measuring in some of these small birds not less than twelve inches. The old 

 males, for instance, of T. paradisi, in their white plumage, with the crested glossy 

 blackish-green head, are exquisite, but it takes considerable time before they attain 

 this perfect plumage, according to the latest theories, as the young male is said to 

 pass several seasons in the reddish brown dress of the female, even after having 

 attained long tail-feathers. Other remarkable forms are the fan-tails (Rldpidnra), a 



