HYPOTHYMIS CEYLONENSIS. 



(THE CEYLONESE AZURE FLYCATCHER.) 



(Peculiar to Ceylon.) 



Myiagra coerulea (Vieill.), Layard & Kelaart, Prodromus, App. p. 58 (1853) ; Layard, Ann. 



& Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 12G. 

 Myiagra azurea (Bodd.), Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 450 (1862), in pt. ; Legge, J. A. S. (Ceylon 



B.) 1870-71, p. 36; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 440 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 18, et 



1875. p. 275. 

 Hypothymis ceyloncnsis, Sharpe, Cat. B. iv. p. 277 (1879). 

 The Blue Flycatcher, Europeans in Ceylon. 

 Marawa, Sinhalese (applied to small Flycatchers). 



Similis //. azurece, sed macula nuchali nigra parvissima et fascia nigra jugulari nulla distinguenda. 



Adult /i.<</< "nil female. Length 6-0 to 6-2 inches ; wing 2-6 to 2-8 ; tail 2-75 ; tarsus 0-6 ; mid toe and claw 0-5 ; biil 

 to gape 0-6 to 0-7. 



Male. Iris dark brown ; bill dull cobalt-blue ; legs and feet dusky blue or bluish plumbeous. 



Head, neck, back, wing-coverts, throat, and chest azure-blue, the head and throat of a brighter though paler hue than 

 the rest ; a spot above the nostril and a small patch on the nape velvety black : wings brown, edged with the hue 

 of the back ; tail the same, the lateral feathers tipped pale ; breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts white ; thighs 

 bluish; under wing-coverts bluish, edged and tipped with white. 



Female. Bill duller blue than male ; legs and feet paler. 



Head, hind neck, and throat casrulean blue, less brilliant than the male, and shading on the chest and back into brownish 



ashv, the feathers margined there with dull blue; wiugs and tail brown, edged with bluish ; lower underparts as 



in male. The black nuchal patch wanting. 



Young. In first plumage the iris is brown ; bill blackish, the tip of the under mandible lightish; tarsi bluish, feet 

 dusky. The male has tin- head and throat dull blue ; chest bluish grey : back and wiugs glossy brown, the tertials 

 with a fulvous tinge ; tail dark brown, obscurely washed with bluish ; thighs dark grey. jS'uehal patch and throat- 

 si ripe wanting. 



. _\Ir. Sharpe has separated the Ceylon Azure Flycatcher from its Indian relative (II. azwea) on account of the 

 me of tln> black throat-bar and its much smaller nape-patch. The specimens he had to assist him in this deter- 

 mination were mine, and, so far as my small series proves, the insular bird certainly differs from the continental. 

 1 have minutely examined the chest-feathers of several males, and can find no trace whatever of any black tippings, 

 although, singularly enough, their undersides are blaclcish brown, and, further, the tips of the feathers, where the 

 black bar should be, form a regular, slightly upturned, transverse line, and contrast in their brighter blue with the 

 slightly duller tint of the underlying ones, so that at first sight it would seem as if a fine dark line really did exist. 

 S| ecimens of 11. azurea which I have examined from various parts of India, China, Formosa, Sumatra, Borneo, &c, all 

 exhibit a more or less well-developed jugular streak ; in some it is nearly g inch wide. A Formosan specimen 

 measures in the wing 2-8, an "Indian " 2'75, one from Nepal 2-9, and one from Bintulu 2-75. 77. occipitalis is a 

 closely allied species from the Philippines, Flores, and other islands, differing in having the abdomen and under 

 tail-coverts washed with bluish instead of being pure white, as in H. azurea and H. ceylonensis. The throat-bar 

 is present in all examples I have examined. 



Distribution. — This pretty blue Flycatcher is generally dispersed throughout the jungles and forests of the 

 interior, not ranging much above the lower hill-districts, except, perhaps, in Uva and in the ranges to the 



