MUSCICAPA HYPERYTHRA. 



(NIETNER'S ROBIN FLYCATCHER.) 



Siphia hyperythra, Cabatiis, Journ. fur Orn. 1866, p. 391 ; Walden, Ibis, 1872, p. 472. 



Man tica hyperythra, Cabanis, Journ. fur Orn. I860, p. 401. 



mitava hyperythra, Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 320. no. 4901 (1809). 



Erythrosterna hyperythra, Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 442, pi. 17; Hume, Nests and Eggs, 



p. 217 (1873); Brooks, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 230. 

 Muscicapa hyperythra, Sharpe, Cat. B. iv. p. 103 (1879). 

 Tin- liti/iit), Planters in Ceylon. 



Adult male. Length l - 6 to -VI inches; wing 2-(> to 2-7; tail 2-0; tarsus 0*7 to 0'8 ; mid toe and claw 06 tu f>65 ; 

 bill to gape 0'6. 



Female. Slightly smaller ; wing 2*5 to 2'6 inches. 



Jris hazel-brown ; hill above brown, pale next the forehead ; gapo and lower mandible fleshy yellow, with the tip 

 dusky ; inside of mouth yellow ; legs and feet deep brown ; soles yellowish. 



Ma!,. Head and upper surface dusU cinereous brown, changing to asbeu on the face and sides of neck; wings 

 brown, edged with cinereous, the margins of the greater coverts being slightly ochraceous ; upper tail-coverts. 

 four centre tail-feathers, and terminal portion of the rest with all hut the base of the outer web of the lateral 

 Feather black ; these hitter, the two next pairs, and the outer web of the adjacent are white for two thirds of the 

 length from the base; lores ashen; orbital fringe dusky grey; chin, throat, breast, and sides of belly rich 

 rufous, changing to white on the belly and vent, and bounded on the fore neck by a bold black border from 

 the gape to the upper flanks; under tail-coverts yellowish bull' and concolorous with tho lower flanks; under 

 w ing-coverts the same. 



Female. Upper surface with a more earthy tint than the male; the black of the tail not quite so intense; lores pale, 

 orbital fringe greyish ; ear-coverts pale-shafted ; chin, throat, and upper breast less bright than in the male. 

 and not divided from the hue of the hind neck by a black bonier. 



Young. Bill paler than in the adult ; legs and feet plumbeous brown. 



Miles in first plumage have tin 1 chin, throat, ami lower breast white, with a rufous wash across the chest : this after- 

 wards deepens and spreads up lie throat, in which stage the black border begins to appear, and distinguishes il 

 from tli,' young female : from this to the adult s'age all gradations of rufous colouring in the chest exist. 



Females in nestling plumage are paler brown above than adults: the lores, cheeks, and orbits the same; chin and 

 chest greyish, with a slight ochraceous tint on the latter; flanks and under tail-coverts faintly tinged with fulvous. 



Obs. This Robin Flycatcher is tin 1 Indian representative of the European species M.parva,to which it is closely 



allied, differing from it in the presence of the black border which separates the rufous throat from the ashen sides 

 of the neck. A male example of .1/. parva from Etawah measures 2*7 inches in the wing, and has the throat 

 and fore neck, but not the chest, paler rufous-orange than in M. hyperythra ; and the hack is of a more earthy hue 

 than that of the latter species; the three outer pairs of tail-feathers are marked similarly, but the fourth has 

 some while .in the inner web. as well as the outer. 



Distribution. — Interesting as are the movements of migratory birds, there are one or two of.our Ceylonese 

 visitants which, tor the ornithologist, possess a more than ordinary amount of attraction, inasmuch as they 

 mysteriously appear in the island from well-known distant summer quarters without having left any trace of 

 their presence in the regions through which they would naturally be disposed to pass, thereby rendering their 

 line of migration a matter of conjecture. Of these the present species forms one of the most remarkable 

 instances in our list. It is migratory to Ceylon, and yet was first discovered there so recently as 1860 by 



