THE VERDITER FLYCATCHER. 
285 
Arrakan_, and he apparently also received the bird from Thayetmyo. I 
have never met with it myself. 
It is found in South China, the hill-tracts of Eastern Bengal, and along 
the whole range of the Himalayas from Assam to the north-west. 
Dr. Jerdon says : — " It lives entirely along rivers and mountain-torrents, 
and may often be seen on a wet and slippery rock, just above a boiling 
rapid ; it climbs up the wet rocks with great facility, and every now and 
then alighting on a rock, it spreads its tail, but does not vibrate it like some 
of the Redstarts. Its flight is rapid and direct. It feeds on various aquatic 
insects and larvae, some kinds of which are always found just at the edge of 
the water, and which a wave often leaves behind it on a rock.^^ 
The nest, made chiefly of moss, is placed on the shelf of a rock or in a 
hole in a bank, and the eggs, three to five in number, are faint green 
marked with pale reddish brown. 
Germs STOPAROLA, BL 
270. STOPAROLA MELANOPS. 
THE VERDITER FLYCATCHER. 
Muscicapa melanops, Vig. P. Z. S. 1831, p. 171. Eumyias melanops, Jerd. B. 
Ind. i. p. 463 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 104 ; Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 323 ; Anders. Yunnan 
Exped. p. 622. Stoporala melanops, Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 208 ; David et 
Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 116 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 92, Stoparola melanops, ^harpe, 
Cat. Birds B. Mus. iv. p. 438. Glaucomyias melanops, Scully, S. F. viii. 
p. 277. 
Description. — Male. Lores, feathers in front of the eye and the feathers 
at the base of the upper mandible black ; the whole plumage with these 
exceptions verditer-blue, brightest on the forehead, chin, throat, breast and 
upper tail-coverts ; under tail-coverts broadly tipped with white ; tail blue, 
with the shafts black and the inner webs edged with brown ; primaries and 
secondaries blue on the outer and black on the inner webs ; the tertiaries 
wholly blue ; upper wing-coverts blue. 
The female has the blue of the head and body much duller, and the chin 
and throat are mottled with whitish ; the lores are brown, and the under 
tail-coverts are more broadly tipped with white. 
The young are greenish grey, the sides of the head and the whole lower 
plumage being spotted with fulvous. At one stage there appear to be 
white spots on the head and back. One specimen I procured was in adult 
plumage, but it had a large white spot on the centre of the nape. 
