368 NOTES ON SOME BIRDS COLLECTED ON THE NILGHIRIS 
287.—Artamus fuscus,. Vieil. The Ashy Swallow 
Shrike. 
This species does not quite ascend the higher ranges of the 
Nilghiris, but it is not uncommon at about 5,500 feet at 
certain seasons. I have also met with it in many places in 
Wynaad, &e. 
The following are the dimensions, &c., taken in the flesh of 
a fine adult male shot at Karote at the foot of Balasore on 
the 13th of May :— 
Length, 7:0; expanse, 15°5; tail, 2:2; wing, 5°53; tarsus, 
0°6; bill from gape, 0°95 ; weight, 1°62 ozs. 
Bill pale blue; tip black; irides deep brown; claws black ; 
legs and feet dull purplish black. 
The young of this species differs from the adult in having 
the breast and abdomen suffused with pale buff, with indis- 
tinct transverse barrings to the feathers. The feathers of the 
upper parts, except the head, edged with ferruginous buff ; the 
primaries and secondaries edged with buffy white, and all, 
except the two central tail feathers, broadly tipped with ashy 
white, and not merely narrowly fringed as in the adult, and 
there is a narrow band of ferruginous buff across the fore- 
head terminating at the anterior angle of the eye. 
288.—Muscipeta paradisi, Zin. The Paradise Fly- 
catcher. 
Dr. Jerdon says that this species does not generally ascend 
the hills higher than 2,000 feet, but it is as common a bird at 
5,000 feet as it is at 2,000 feet, and I have on several ocea- 
sions shot it at heights of six to eight thousand feet, and seen 
it much oftener. My experience is that it is nowhere a 
very common bird, and rather locally distributed. I have quite 
failed to make out clearly the various changes that take place 
in the plumage of this species. I have shot specimens the 
same day, pure white and in various phases of the chesnut 
and white plumage, both adult and young birds. The female 
never, that I am aware, assumes either the long tail feathers 
or the white plumage, and the immature birds are at first, I 
think, chesnut. 
290.—Hypothymis azurea, Bodd. The Black-naped 
Blue Flycatcher. 
A common bird all through the Wynaad and the Nilghiris, 
but it does not quite ascend to the plateau. It is very fond 
of bamboo, and is found most numerously where this abounds. 
