Birds of Celebes: Muscicapidae. 
379 
GENUS RHIPIDURA Vig. Horsf. 
The tail of the Fan-tailed Flycatchers is much longer than the wing, gra- 
duated, the feathers broad; the and 5^^ remiges are longest, the second about 
as long as the secondaries ; the bill is moderate, thickly beset with rictal and 
frontal bristles, reaching nearly to the tip of the bill; the tarsus is (always?) 
longer than the middle toe and claw. Biittikofer (1893) recognises 75 species, 
ranging from Australia and New Zealand as far as the Himalayas and many 
islands of Polynesia, as well as throughout the East India Archipelago. 
4 * 132. KHIPIDURA OELEBENSIS Btitt. 
Southern Fan-tailed Flycatcher. 
Ehipidura celebensis (1) Biittik., Notes Leyden Mus. 1893, XY, 79; (2) Hart., Nov. Zool. 
1896, 167, 173, 182, 585. 
Adult [male]. Crown, hind neck, fore part of mantle, lesser wing-coverts, and 
thighs dark earthy brown; quills and greater wing-coverts sejDia-hrown, edged 
Avith the colour of the crown; remaining upper surface, including forehead, 
rufous; tail blackish, exposed webs iron-grey, basal part — except on outermost pair 
— red, tips white, broadest on outermost pair, on the outer webs of which the white 
runs some distance towards the base; lores, sides of face, throat and chest 
black, the chest bordered below with white-tipped feathers; malar streak from chin 
to sides of chest white; chin white; remaining under-parts white, tinged with 
fulvous on flanks, vent, and under tail -coverts; inner edge of quills below ashy 
whitish. Bill dark brown, white at base of lower mandible, feet dark brown. Wing 
66 mm; middle tail-feathers 85, outermost 62; tarsus 20; culmen 13 (ex Biittik.). 
“Iris dark brown; hill dark brown; mandible ochreous dark brown towards the tip; 
legs pale grey” (Everett 2). 
Distribution. ? South Peninsula, Celebes Macassar (Teijsmann); Djampea and ‘Kalao 
(Everett 2). 
This Flycatcher was described from a single specimen in the Leyden Museum. 
Mr. Biittikofer remarks that it is “very closely allied to R. semicollaris M. & S. 
from the Timor group, but easily distinguished by the darker tinge of the earthy 
brown parts of the upper surface and the broader black band across the lower 
throat and chest”. In R. teijsmanni of South Celebes the tail is cinnamon-red, 
with the terminal third sepia-brown, and across the chest there is only a narrow 
bar of black, not bordered with white below. 
The nearest ally of R. celebensis at present known is R. sumbensis Hart., 
to which Mr. Hartert allows only subspecific rank, though he has not shown 
that the two forms intergrade. In three skins of the latter no differences of 
colour could be detected by Mr. Hartert, but they were not well prepared 
specimens; they proved to be considerably larger in size. Mr. Hartert queries 
the label “Macassar” indicated as the locality of Mr. Biittikofer’s type, and it 
is indeed strange, if the bird occurs there, that it should have escaped Wallace, 
48 =^ 
