304



Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker,



ceiling, as I threw up pieces of liver for him to catch. He was a

magnificent catch, and would have been worth playing in the

slips in any test match, but he was not nearly as quick as a tame

Drongo I kept at the same time and when both were in the same

room together I had always to throw the Drongo a piece first and

whilst he was after it, throw a piece for the Flycatcher in the

opposite direction.


It was a very beautiful sight to see the two birds in the air

at once; the Drongo, a specimen of the Lesser Racquet-tailed

species (.Bringa remifet ) with glistening coal black plumage and

the snowy white Flycatcher, both with their beautiful tail feathers

streaming out behind them. The Drongo seemed to feel no

inconvenience from his tail feathers when turning and twisting

in the air, but the Flycatcher, who eventually developed four

magnificent central tail feathers, always seemed to find these a

handicap when he wanted to turn suddenly. Flying straight

ahead, the beautiful white streamers floated out behind him like

waving banners, curving gracefully with each dip of the bird’s

rising and falling flights: but when he wanted to dodge on one

side they caught the wind and checked his speed quite visibly.


When I obtained my Paradise Flycatcher he was a little

red brown bird evidently of that season, confirming the story of

the Nagas to the effect that they had but taken him from the nest

the preceding May. Even then he was a pretty bird. The whole

forehead and crown were black gradually shading into grey on

the chin, throat and upper breast and into the same colour on the

nape, though there it was darker and more glossy. The rest of his

plumage colour was a bright dark chestnut, the quills of the

wing darker and browner on the concealed portions. Below the

whole surface was a ruddy orange, the centre of the abdomen

and vent being almost white. The next year the bird acquired

two long centre tail feathers, but these were red as in the adult

female, though he also assumed the black head of the adult male

and his lower parts turned an almost pure white. In the third

year he still retained the chestnut upper tail coverts and also a

good many chestnut feathers in the wing-coverts and scapulars

and it was not until he was in his fourth year, or a little over

three years old, that he attained the full snow-white glory of the



