266 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
Genus EHIPIDUEA, Vig. & Horsf. 
251. RHIPIDURA ALBICOLLIS. 
THE WHITE-THROATED FANTAIL. 
Platyrhynchus albicoUis, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. tVHist. Nat. xxvii. p. 13. Rhipi- 
dura fuscoventris, FranUin, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 117. Leucocerca fusco- 
ventris, Jerd. B. Ind. i. p, 451 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 200. Leucocerca 
albicoUis, Wald. in Bl. B. Burm. p. 132 ; Hume, S. F. iii. p, 103 ; Cripps, 
S. F. vii. p. 276 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 92, ix. p. 174 (footnote). Rhipidura 
albicoUis, Anders. Yunnan Fxped. p. 656 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. iv. p. 317. 
Description. — Male and female. Crown^ lores, sides of the head and 
angle of the chin deep black ; a short supercilium white j throat white, 
extending laterally to the sides of the neck, the bases of the feathers black, 
causing the white to appear dull ; with these exceptions, the whole 
plumage is dark sooty brown, paler on the wing ; tail dark brown, all but 
the central pair of feathers broadly tipped with white. The female is stated 
by Mr. Sharpe to be greyer below and to have more white on the throat ; but 
I do not think the difference between the sexes is definable or constant. 
The young have the wing- coverts and feathers of the back tipped with 
rufous ; the white supercilium and the white on the throat are barely 
indicated. 
Bill, legs and feet black ; mouth fleshy white j eyelids grey j iris deep 
brown ; claws blackish horn-colour. 
Length 7*5 inches, tail 4, wing 2*9, tarsus '75, bill from gape '7. The 
female is of about the same size. 
The White-throated Fantail is spread sparingly over the whole of Pegu, 
and is a constant resident. Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay procured it in the 
Karennee hills at an elevation of 4000 feet. In Tenasserim, according to 
Mr. Davison, it is apparently confined to the forests of the outer Tenasserim 
range and adjacent spurs, at elevations of from 2000 to 6000 feet. Although 
not recorded from Arrakan, it is probably very common in that Division. 
It extends through the Indo-Burmese countries into Northern India, 
and ranges as far as Central India. Dr. Tiraud mentions that it is com- 
mon in Cochin China. 
This Fantail is by no means a common bird gyiywhere in Burmah, but 
it is not confined to any particular sort of jungle. It may be met with 
both in thick forest and in the neighbourhood of villages and gardens. It 
has the peculiar habit of dancing about, with tail outspread, from branch to 
branch. I have not found its nest in Pegu, but in India it breeds from 
May to July. The nest, which is a tiny structure made of grass and coated 
with cobwebs, is placed in a fork of a tree not far from the ground. The 
eggs, three in number, are pale yellowish marked with grey. 
