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Birds of Celebes: Muscicapidae. 
Distribution. Java (Horsfield a 1, Bernstein d 1, etc.); Saleyer (Weber 8, Everett f 1)-, 
Celebes: — South Peninsula (Weber S, P. & F. Sarasin 10, Everett fl), Central 
Celebes (P. & E. S. 10), W. Celebes (Doherty f 2), N. Peninsula (Meyer d 2, Fischer 
c 2, etc.); PPalawan (Everett 3, 4); ?Borneo (Doria & Beccari, etc. d 3, 4); ?Labuan 
(Low 4); PSumatra (Baffles J 5); ?Penang (Wallace 1). 
This Blue-backed Flycatcher appears to be a species which has recently 
extended its range, and in Celebes it may probably be regarded as a slightly 
modified colonist from Java. 
It is related to 8. philippinensis Sharpe of the Philippine Islands, a species 
which Lord Tweeddale, while noticing certain differences, did not venture to 
separate. In this form, as Dr. Sharpe shows (Tr. Linn. Soc. 1889, I, 324), the ab- 
domen and under tail-coverts are white, instead of orange-rufous. In the allied 
>S. djampeana the sexes are said by Mr. Hartert to be much alike and the 9 
hardly to differ from the cf of the Celebes birds except by the slightly larger 
bill and darker, almost entirely black, ear-coverts and malar region. Siphia 
rufigula (Wall.) of Celebes is also somewhat similar, but may easily be dis- 
tinguished by its white abdomen and under tail-coverts and the absence of black 
on its chin. In some of his excellent field-notes on Javan birds Bernstein (d 1) 
writes as follows on the habits of Siphia hanyumas: “It inhabits by preference 
the groves and shrubs around villages at some elevation not far from the hill- 
forests, as also the coffee plantations and the forests themselves, though it is 
seen far less plentifully in their depths than along their borders. On the plains 
on the contrary it belongs to the birds of rarer occurrence. Sitting upon a 
prominent bough it watches attentively for insects, which it catches very cleverly 
on the wing, and then, turning back to the perch it had left or to another 
bough, devours them. Its song is rather simple, and when Temminck {hi) 
describes it as excellent he is not well informed”. In Celebes it also seems 
to be a hill species; Platen sent it to Mr. Nehrkorn from Burukan, 3000 feet; 
the Sarasins got it in the same neighbourhood, also at Lake Posso; they, 
Weber and Everett about Mt. Bonthain, Doherty at 4000 and 6000 ft. in 
W. Celebes. Our native collectors recently obtained a number of specimens 
near Tondano, 2000 ft. No specimens have as yet been recorded from the low- 
lands of the island. Hose obtained the Bornean race only at a height of 
2000 feet on Mount Dulit, whereas Siphia nigrogularis “is the usual low-country 
form of Blue Flycatcher” in Borneo. Siphia rujigida of Celebes has, on the 
other hand, apparently been obtained only in the low country of Celebes. 
The curious mottled plumage of the young corresponds with that of the 
young Muscicapa grisola of Europe. From this type the adult Muscicapa has 
departed less widely than the adult Siphia. 
