416 ALSEONAX LATIROSTEIS. 



India in Octobei - and departing again in the following April. It spreads over the whole low country, but is 

 nowhere very plentiful, and liable to be passed over, as it is of solitary habits. From the low lands it ascends 

 into the coffee-districts to an altitude of about 3500 feet. About Colombo and on the west coast generally 

 it is fairly common, inhabiting trees in the vicinity of houses or even in the town itself, and it is liable to be 

 met with anywhere in the interior. 



It was described from Sumatra by Raffles, but does not appear to have been procured there of late years, 

 although it is not uncommonly met with in Java, Borneo, and Malacca ; it is of course a winter visitor to all 

 this region and also to the Andamans, where Lieut. Wardlaw Ramsay procured it in December, January 

 and February. According to Swinhoe it summers in China, and does the same in Japan and Eastei'n Siberia, 

 m which regions it no doubt chiefly breeds, and from which it migrates at the latter end of the year to India, 

 Tenasserim, and Malasia. In Tenasserim, singularly enough, Mr. Hume says that it has only been observed 

 in the southern half of the province. It does not appear to be found in Burmah, and is not recorded by 

 Mr. Inglis from Cachar; it is therefore somewhat difficult to follow its line of migration to India from China 

 and North-eastern Siberia ; and it may be that the birds which visit the plains of India, the southern part of 

 the peninsula, and Ceylon breed in the Himalayas. Jerdon writes that A. terricolor of Hodgson inhabits the 

 Himalayas at no great elevation, and visits the plains in the cool season, which implies, of course, that it 

 summers in the mountains ; it will be observed also that the young bird which I have described above is from 

 Nepal. It does not extend into North-western India, keeping quite to the east until it gets to the Deccau, 

 where Messrs. Davidson and Wender obtained it at Sholapoor and Mr. Fairbank at Khandala. In the 

 Travancore hills Mr. Bourdillon says it is common during the winter months. 



Habits. — This Flycatcher resembles in its economy the common species of Europe {Muscicapa yrisola) , and 

 remiuds one much of this latter species. It takes up its abode in shady trees, often in the middle of towns 

 and villages, or on the borders of streams, in native gardens, and even in the recesses of the dry forests of the 

 north. It chooses in the latter localities a spot which is cheered by the rays of the sun, and cpaietly perches 

 on the low branch of a tree, every now and then making an active dart on a passing insect and returning 

 with it to its perch. It is very silent and exceedingly tame, sitting fearlessly in the most public situations, 

 entirely regardless of the busy hum of human life. It now and then utters a weak note after catching an 

 insect, and will then sit perfectly motionless until it espies some other object of pursuit. 



