PRATINCOLA BICOLOR. 431 



Above and beneath coal-black, slightly brownish on the lower part of the breast; tips of the rump-feathers, and all 

 but the terminal portions of the tail-coverts, the median and innermost feathers of the greater wing-coverts, 

 together with the centre of the abdomen and the under tail-coverts, white. Not unfrequently one or two white 

 feathers about the nape exist, and the amount of this colour on the rump and lower parts varies somewhat. 



Female. Length 5-6 to 5-9 inches ; wing 2-9 to 3-05 ; bill, legs, and feet not so black as in the male. 



Above, with the throat and neck dusky brown, the feathers edged brownish fulvous ; wing-coverts with broad margins 

 of the same ; rump and upper tail-coverts pale rufous, the under coverts slightly lighter, and the lower breast and 

 abdomen brownish fulvous, slightly albescent about the centre of the abdominal region. 



Young. The nestling male is blackish brown above, with mesial fulvous spots to the clothing-feathers and broad 

 margins to the wing-coverts and quills ; throat and fore neck fulvous, with black edgings, and the lower breast 

 and abdomen pale fulvescent ; rump, upper and under tail-coverts faded rufous. 



When the black plumage is assumed it is edged with brown ; the quills are blackish brown, and the white of the 

 abdomen extends up to the lower breast ; the white rump is also tinged with rufous-buff. 



Obs. This singular form, in the matter of its spotted immature plumage and the bristles which arm the gape, makes a 

 connecting-link between the Flycatchers and the Chats. Mr. Sharpe places it, along with the rest of the " Chats," 

 among his Muscicapidse, which comprise, in his 4th volume of the ' Catalogue of Birds,' an immense number 

 of species having strong rictal bristles and exceedingly diverse habits. In this species the rictal bristles do 

 not project beyond the nasal membrane ; and I therefore deem it more expedient, in a local work like 

 this, to keep it in its original position, reserving as Flycatchers only those species which, by reason of 

 their habits, are entitled to the name. As an inhabitant of the hDls of Ceylon and South India, and of 

 constantly larger size than its widely-spread North-Indian, Malayan, and Philippine representative, P. eaprata, 

 it appears to be worthy of being considered a good subspecies or local race of the latter ; were it a 

 smaller bird than P. eaprata, thus following the rule observable in nearly all species inhabiting both Ceylon and 

 the mainland, the question of size would not entitle it to subspecific rank ; but in its case this rule is exactly 

 reversed, and we find it an inhabitant only of elevated regions, with larger proportions than are anywhere displayed 

 by its northern lowland representative. 



I have examined a large series of P. eaprata in the British Museum with a view of ascertaining whether it ever attained 

 to the size of the Ceylonese and Nilghiri race, and I find that males from Nepal, Behar, N.W. Himalayas, 

 Saugor, Burmah, Macassar, Timor, Philippines, E. Java, Celebes, and Lombock vary in the wing from 2-6 to 

 2-9 inches, and females from 2*4 to 2-7 ; throughout the whole series examined the smallness of the bills was 

 particularly noticeable, the average length, from tip to gape, being 062, and in only one specimen did it reach 0-7- 

 The black of the upper surface and breast is more glossy and intense than in P. bicolor, and there is generally, 

 more especially in Malayan specimens, more white on the rump. 



Mr. Hume remarks that examples of P. bicolor from the Western Ghats, the Nilghiris, Palanis, and other Southern- 

 Indian ranges are absolutely identical with others from the hilly portions of Ceylon. He considers that Sykes's 

 name was given to a Mahabaleshwar (Western Ghats) specimen, in which case it would apply to our bird, which 

 was subsequently described from Ceylon by Blyth under Kelaart's MS. name atrata. It is highly probable that 

 Sykes's bird belonged to the larger race, as his measurements (P. Z. S. 1832, p. 92) are " longitudo corporis 5-6 

 unc, caudae 2-4 ;" and these correspond with those of our race. Mr. Hume says that the Nilghiri birds " average 

 in length 5-5 to 5 - 7 ; wing 3 ; tail from vent 2-0 to 2'2." I have examined several in the national collection, and 

 though they equal Ceylonese examples in the wing, they are not so large in the bill. 



Distribution. — The Hill-Chat is only an inhabitant of the upper mountains, and even there its limit is 

 markedly defined. Commencing with the Horton Plains, to the lonely solitudes of which its sprightly little 

 form lends a charm, it radiates over the Nuwara-Elliya plateau, being very numerous at the sanatarium 

 itself, and extends through Kandapolla down to the Elephant Plains and the upper parts of Udu Pusselawa, 

 where its numbers at once decrease, its occurrence even in Maturata being not at all frequent. On the 

 Uva side it ranges through the patna-basin to Haputale, on the southern slopes of which, as well as on those of 

 the adjacent high ridges above Haldamulla and Bilhuloya, it is found as low as 3500 feet. Beyond Badulla it 

 is rare ; and in the upper parts of the Knuckles I am not aware that it is located at all. 



In Dimbulla and Dickoya it is almost replaced by the Black Robin (Thamnobia fulicata) . I did not observe 

 it at all in the former region, and I understand that it is not very common in either. 



