5i8 



PERCHING BIRDS. 



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

 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 (J/, parva) is a summer visitant 



Flycatcher. £ 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 



: 

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WHITE COLLARED A>D RED-BREASTED ELY-CATCHER lg nat. 



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. tne 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 (Terpsdphone) are distinguished by the crested head, and the great 

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



