1846.] or Little Known Species of Birds. 291 



This bird is generally distributed over all India, from the Himalaya to 

 Ceylon, and it is common enough in mango groves in Lower Bengal. 



Of the Tchitrea, I am acquainted with three Asiatic species which 

 have the middle tail-feathers elongated, and the Muscipeta atrocaudata 

 of Eyton is perhaps a fourth. 



1. Teh. paradisi, (L.), the fully mature bird : Muscicapa indica, Stephens, 

 and M. castanea* Tem., the once moulted bird.f It is not at all uncom- 

 mon to get specimens of this bird in a transitional state of plumage, 

 variously intermediate to the phases above referred to ; and not merely 

 when moulting from the rufous to the white garb, but a variously in- 

 termediate dress is occasionally put forth. Thus, among a number of 

 specimens before me, one white male has a considerable intermixture 

 of rufous on many of its back and rump feathers : another is almost 

 unmixed rufous above, and pure white below ; some of the upper tail- 

 coverts are white, and there is a streak of the same on one of the mid- 

 dle caudal feathers : a female is very similar to the last, but has one 

 primary on each wing — and not the corresponding feathers — white- 

 edged : another and remarkably fine rufous male has a single white 

 dorsal feather only : and another again has only a single outermost 

 caudal feather chiefly white, with a black outer margin. Females do 

 not appear to assume the white dress until they are several years old ; 

 and it is usual, therefore, to see a white male paired with a rufous 

 female : but, in general, the females have the whole neck and throat 

 glossy- black, like the male, though in some the lower portion of the 

 black passes into grey, and rarely the whole throat is ashy, with the 

 lower half of the neck behind. In adults of either sex, the crest-feathers 

 appear never to be under an inch in length, and vary from that to one and 

 a quarter : but the nestling-bird is crestless, and has the head of a pale 

 dull chesnut, with the clothing feathers altogether extremely downy 

 and unsubstantial. Lastly, the black exterior margin to the caudal 

 feathers occurs only in the white or fully mature livery, and the 

 elongated central tail-feathers are never thus margined (as in the next 

 species), but have a black shaft for about half their length. This species 

 is more or less common throughout India, from the Himalaya to Ceylon. 



* Perhaps, however, this name belongs rather to the next, or common Malayan, 

 species. 



f Muse, mutata of India, Lath., can only refer to the same. 



