CULICICAPA CEYLONEXSIS. 411 



it is singular that it is not found in all the elevated forests in the south. I observe that it is not recorded 

 from the Travancore hills, though Mr. Fairbank says it is common on the top of the Palanis and in " groves 

 lower down." It does not seem to extend towards the north-west frontier beyond the Sambhur Lake, where 

 Mr. Adam remarks that it is very rare. Turning to the east, however, it is diffused throughout the sub- 

 Himalayan region, breeding up to 7000 feet, and stretches into Assam, Burmah, and Tenasserim, in which 

 latter province Mr. Hume says it is found sparingly, extending the whole way down the Malayan peninsula to 

 Singapore island. Further south than this it is found in Java and Borneo ; and returning again to the continent 

 we find Swinhoe recording it from the Szechuen Province. 



In common with not a few other widely-distributed species, this little Flycatcher was first made known 

 from Ceylon, the specimen figured by Swainson in his 'Zoological Illustrations/ and called by him the 

 Ceylonese Flatbill, having been sent to him by that diligent naturalist Governor Loten. 



Habits. — This is a charmingly tame and fearless little bird, whose merry little whistle is one of the charac- 

 teristic sounds of the cool up-country forests of Ceylon. It frequents the lower branches of forest trees, the 

 edges of clearings in the jungle, patna-woods, &c., and is particularly fond of trees at the sides of roads and 

 on the borders of mountain-streams. It is exceedingly active, and for the most part. lives in pairs, carrying on 

 its insect-trapping vocation in perfect disregard to any thing going on around it. I have known it swoop at 

 an insect and alight on a fallen log or low stump within a few feet of a bystander. It accompanies its occu- 

 pations by the exercise of its vocal powers, frequently giving vent to its cheerful note, while it snaps up its 

 prey with an audible sound of its mandibles. The whistle of the male is a more than usually loud note for a 

 bird of such small size, and resembles the syllables tit-titu-wKeee, and in the morning is very frequently 

 repeated. Birds of the year congregate in little troops unaccompanied by adults, and keep up a constant 

 twittering note. 



Jerdon writes of its habits as follows : — " It is tolerably active and lively, making frequent sallies after 

 small insects, and not always returning to the same perch, but flitting about a good deal, though it usually 

 remains in the same tree or clump of trees for some time." 



Nidification. — I have not had the good fortune to obtain any information concerning the nesting of the 

 present species in Ceylon ; but on consulting Mr. Hume's admirable work on the nests and eggs of Indian 

 birds, we find that in India the Grey-headed Flycatcher lays during the months of April, May, and June, and 

 constructs its nest, according to Indian observers, amidst the growing moss on some perpendicular rock or 

 old trunk of a tree; it is composed of moss, cobwebs, and lichens, sometimes lined with moss-roots or with 

 fine grass-stalks. Thenests resemble little watch-pockets of moss, the interior of which is about 1 inch in diameter 

 by about 2 inches in depth, and, fixed as they are to the moss-grown trunks, are very difficult to discover. 

 Capt. Hutton speaks of one which had depended beneath it " a long bunch of mosses, fastened to the tree with 

 spiders' webs, and serving as a support or cushion on which the nest rested." The number of eggs is usually 

 four ; Mr. Hume describes them as moderately broad ovals, scarcely compressed towards the small end ; they 

 are dingy yellowish white, and they have a broad conspicuous confluent zone of spots and blotches towards the 

 large end, the colour of which is a mottled combination of dingy yellowish brown and clingy purplish grey ; 

 the rest of the egg is more or less thickly spotted with very pale dingy brown. They are almost glossless, and 

 average - 62 inch in length by - 48 inch in breadth. 



oG 



