174 



M. atricapilla. 



Forehead with a small white patch, which 

 in some specimens is reduced 

 to a few white feathers. 



Neck : without any trace of a white 

 collar. 



Wings : secondaries with but compara- 

 tively little white, the alar 

 patch being but small. 



Tail : black with but little white, 

 this colour being usually 

 restricted to the outer web 

 of the external tail-feather. 



M. collaris. 



with a large white patch, which 

 in some specimens extends 

 from the base of the bill to a 

 line drawn over the head in 

 front of the eyes. 



with a broad white collar ex- 

 tending right round. 



with a broad and conspicuous 

 white patch. 



black, occasionally in very old 

 males with a narrow line of 

 white extending over part of 

 the outer web of the external 

 tail-feather. 



M. semitorquata. 



with a white patch nearly as 

 large as in M. collaris. 



with a white semicollar 

 extending about halfway 

 round, but not meeting 

 behind. 



alar patch about as large as in 

 M. collaris. 



external tail-feather white, 

 with a large black terminal 

 patch on the inner web ; the 

 next feather white, with a 

 rather larger terminal black 

 patch on both webs ; rest of 

 the tail black. 



The four males (from Ortakeuy, Lenkoran, Choula, and Batoum) vary but little in size, the measurements 

 being as follows : — Culmen - 4 to 0"45 inch, wing 315 to 3"2, tail 2'0 to 2*1, tarsus 07 to 0'72. 



As above stated, there does not appear to be any constant character by which the female of M. semi- 

 torquata may be always separated from that of M. atricapilla. Von Homeyer says that in the former 

 the two outer tail-feathers have the outer web white, usually to within 1 cm. of the tip, the third 

 having a white edge only, but I do not find this constant; and in the immature and nestling plumages 

 it is impossible to separate the two species. 



In the present day the tendency amongst ornithologists is towards a subdivision of species to an 

 extent that was never thought of twenty years ago ; and though I personally am far more 

 disposed to " lump " than to " split," I find myself compelled, to some extent, to march with 

 the times. Thus in the case of a form differing but slightly, though constantly, and having 

 a distinct geographical range, I hold that it is necessary to recognize it as a distinct species, 

 as, for instance, in the case of Picus leucopterus and Lanius leucopterus, which are eastern 

 representatives respectively of Picus major and Lanius excubitor, and in the present case we 

 have a similar instance of a closely allied form occupying a distinct range. In Europe we 

 have Muscicapa atricapilla inhabiting Europe generally from Scandinavia to the extreme 

 south, ranging in winter into Africa, and Muscicapa collaris, which is found from Central 

 Europe to the Mediterranean and in Asia Minor. Eastward of Asia Minor, however, these 

 two are replaced by the present species, and, so far as I can judge, Muscicapa atricapilla 

 does not range further east than the borders of Europe, nor M. collaris further east than 

 Asia Minor. 



Muscicapa semitorquata, the present species, inhabits Southern Russia, the Caucasus, 

 ranging eastward into Persia, and appears occasionally to straggle as far west as Turkey, as I 



