Order PASSERES.] 



[Fam. MUSCICAPID.E. 



EHIPIDUEA FTLIGINOSA. 



(BLACK FANTAIL.) 



Obs. 



Muscicapa fuliginosa , Sparrm. "Mus. Carls, pi. 47 (1787). 



Miiscicaim deserti, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 949 (1788, ex Sparrm.). 



BMpidura melanura, Gray, in DiefF. Trav., ii. App. p. 191 (1843). 



Leucocerca melanura, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 324 (1850). 



Mipidura tristis, Hombr. et Jacq. Voy. Pole Sud, Ois. iii. p. 76, pi. ii. fig. 5 (1853). 



Ad. nigricans, dorso alisque brunneo tinctis : macuKi postauriculari parv^ albi : subtus dilutius brunneus : 



rostro nigro, mandibulft versus basin albicante : pedibus nigricanti-brunneis : iride nigr^. 



Adult Entire plumage black, tinged on the back and wings with rusty brown, and on the under surface 

 with paler brown ; behind each ear a small spot of white. Irides black ; bill black, white at the base of 

 the lower mandible ; tarsi and toes blackish brown. Total length 6-5 inches ; extent of wings 8 ; wing, 

 from flexure, 3-75; tail 4; bill, along the ridge -3, along the edge of lower mandible -4; tarsus -7 ; 

 middle toe and claw '6; hind toe and claw -5. 



Female. Similar to the male, but with the white spots behind the ears much reduced. 



In the fuU-plumaged male, the white mark described above usually consists of twelve diminutive 

 feathers. In an example which came under my notice at Kaiapoi this feature was exaggerated, the 

 white spreading entirely over the ear-coverts and surrounding feathers. In some it is scarcely visible, 

 while in others (probably young birds) it is altogether wanting. 



This dark-coloured species is restricted to the South Island, where it is far more common than 

 the preceding one. Mr. G. R. Gray gives Cook's Strait as its habitat; but although common 

 enough on the Nelson side, I know of only one instance of its occurrence on the northern shore 

 of the strait, or in any part of the North Island. After very stormy weather in ^^ - ^ °^ ^ " ~^"^ 

 a specimen in a flax-field near the mouth of the Mananatu Eiver, on the south-west coast of the 

 Wellino-ton Province. It was evidently a straggler from the opposite mainland, and havmg by 

 some means been deprived of its ample tail, which serves to balance the body, it had probably 

 lost command of itself, and thus been borne across the sea by the prevailing gales. 



That the Flycatcher does sometimes indulge voluntarily in a water excursion, I have myself 

 had proof; for in April 1869, when entering the Whangarei Heads, a Pied Fantail (Bhvpidura 

 flabellifera) flew off from the shore, and after making a circuit of our little steamer, apparently 

 to satisfy its curiosity, returned to the land. The life-history of this species differs in no respect 

 from that of its congener, as described in the foregoing pages. The stomachs of two which I 

 dissected contained, in addition to the remains of small dipterous insects, the mmute seeds of 



some wild berry. 



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