SIPHIA BUBECULOIDES. 425 



which I have alluded to in the case of Ceylon birds. Mr. Hume especially dwells on this point in connexion with 

 the Tenasserim individuals referred to in his exhaustive treatise on the birds of that province, and says that in 

 twelve out of fifteen adult males the rufous of the chest runs up in a stripe towards the chin, and in one the entire 

 chin and throat are concolorous with the breast. It is difficult to see how this latter specimen can be C. ruhecu,- 

 loides ; it would appear more likely to be C. tidcellice. In three examples from the North-west Himalayas, which 

 have the wings 2*95, 2'8, and 3-0 inches respectively, I find that the blue runs straight across the throat at a 

 distance of - 7 inch from the chin in two, and in the third the rufous runs up in a point towards the chin. In a 

 Darjiling specimen the blue of the throat is very deep in colour, and descends down upon the sides of the chest ; 

 wing 2-7. In a Pegu example the rufous runs up the blue throat to within 0-4 of the chin ; wing 2-6 : in one from 

 Madras the same is the case ; wing 2-8. In no specimen in the British Museum does the rufous extend higher 

 than within 0-4 of the chin ; but I observe that Mr. Hume says it does so in rare instances. A presumed female 

 in the national collection from the Bhootan Doars is much paler rufous on the chest than a Ceylon example ; and 

 I notice that Mr. Blanford observes this character (Str. Feath. 1877, p. 4S4) in a series procured in the same 

 district by Mr. Mandelli, in -which also the throat is always whitish. A doubt is expressed whether all the 

 specimens referred to were really females, as they were not sexed ; it is possible, therefore, that these birds may 

 represent a distinct species. 

 Cyornis elegans, from Malacca, Borneo, and Sumatra, is described as having the throat bright cobalt-blue, as w 7 ell as the 

 forehead and shoulders of the wing, and must be regarded as a brighter-coloured ally of the present species. 



Distribution. — I take this Flycatcher to be migratory to Ceylon. I have met with it in various parts of 

 the northern forests, hut only between the months of October and April. Layard was of the same opinion, 

 and writes as follows : — " I obtained a few specimens of this elegant little Flycatcher during their migration 

 from the mainland. I first shot them on the 14th of October 1851, and a few subsequently at Pt. Pedro ; they 

 then disappeared, and I saw no more of them." I never met with it in the western, southern, or eastern districts 



SIPHIA NIGrEOEHFA. 

 (THE BLACK-AND-ORANGE FLYCATCHER.) 



Saxicola nigrorufa, Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1839, x. p. 266. 



Ochromela nigrorufa, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1847, xvi. p. 129 ; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 173 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. 

 & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 126 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 289 (1854) ; Jerdon, B. of 

 Ind. i. p. 462 (1862) ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 441 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, i. p. 207 (1873) ; Bourdillon, 

 Str. Feath. 1876, p. 396 ; Fairbank, ibid. 1877, p. 401. 



Siphia nigrorufa, Sharpe, Cat. B. iv. p. 455 (1879). 



Orange Robin, Jerdon. 



Adult male and female. Length about 5-0 inches (Jerdon) ; wing 2-3 ; tail 1-9 to 2-0 ; tarsus 0-7 ; middle toe and 

 claw 0-6 ; bill to gape 0-55. The above measurements, with the exception of the length, are from a series of four 

 skins in the British Museum. 



" Iris hazel-brown ; bill black ; legs and feet dirty reddish " (Jerdon). 



'Male. Head, face, ear-coverts, hind neck, and a line along the under mandible to the chin blackish brown, tinged with 

 an olive hue ; wings very dark brown, the coverts blacker than the quills ; rest of the plumage orange-rufous, 

 darkest on the back and sides of the neck, and paling into rufescent fulvous on the abdomen. 



Female. Head, face, and hind neck olive-brown, the frontal feathers with rufous centres ; ear-coverts striated with 

 whitish ; remainder of the plumage as in the male, but with the abdomen white ; orbital fringe rufous. 



Distribution. — The evidence on which this curiously-coloured Flycatcher has hitherto been included in our lists 

 rests on a drawing of a bird, asserted by Layard to represent it, made by Mr. E. L. Mitford. of the Ceylon Civil Service. 



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