FLYCATCHERS. 47 



movements amongst the garden plants or the grass and trees 

 of the orchard, he may disturb the torpid flies and so provide 

 the catcher with a dinner. For the common flycatcher, be 

 it remembered, is a thorough sport. Like his bigger hunting 

 friends, the eagles and falcons, he scorns to take any food 

 except on the wing. Many other insect-eating birds will hunt 

 round amongst the grass, the bark of trees, or other hiding 

 places for their prey. M. Griseola is above that. "On the 

 wing, or not at all" is equally his and the swallow's motto. 



The pied flycatcher is rare in England, and is, I think, 

 equally so in China. I have never seen one. The most attractive 

 of the flycatchers with which I am acquainted, in this part 

 of the world, is best known by his English name, Ince's 

 Paradise flycatcher. Authorities differ as to his classical 

 title, some calling him Tchitrea Incei, others Terpsiphone 

 Paradisi. The very word "Paradise" suggests something 

 out of the common in the way of adornment, and the bird 

 we have now under notice has it. His head is of a dark cobalt 

 blue, with a kind of metallic lustre which in certain lights 

 turns to a green tinge. He has a crest of feathers, not 

 very pronounced, but quite an ornament when seen at their 

 best. Then comes a peculiarity : the rest of his body may be 

 either mainly white or mainly a very warm chocolate so 

 ruddy as to shine in the sun and make of him a very conspic- 

 uous object indeed when in full view. If white, there are 

 black feathers here and there by way of contrast. The female 

 has the same blue head, but her body is always of the ruddy 

 chocolate hue. There is a marked difi^erence, however, be- 

 tween her tail and that of her lord. Hers is comparatively 

 short; his, in addition to the feathers found in hers, has two 

 central feathers which trail behind to a length of perhaps ten 

 or twelve inches. There is no stifi'ness about them. They 

 are, as a matter of fact, quite slender and drooping, and their 

 passage through the air shows a quivering waviness that 

 might be expected under such circumstances. I am careful 

 to note this, because in an old book of birds in my possession 

 there is an engraving of the Paradise flycatcher which 

 presents the two long feathers as if they were stiff as wires 

 and capable of standingout in a perfectly straight line for their 

 entire length. We owe a debt to those old engravers which, 

 luckily for them, we can never pay. The audacity they must 

 have possessed would have been of the utmost value used in 

 a good cause but, when employed to disseminate imaginary 

 impressions, utterly false to nature and to fact, the result 

 has not been happy. We may place in the same category the 

 artist who drew the Paradise flycatcher with the wiry tail 

 and him who filled the native city of Shanghai with hills and 

 mountains. 



