CULICICAPA CEYLONENSIS. 
(THE GREY-HEADED FLYCATCHER.) 
Platijrhynchus ceylonensis, Swains. Zool. Illust. ser. 1, pi. 13 (1820-21). 
Cryptolopha cinereocapilla, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 205 (1849) ; Kelaart, Prodroraus, 
Cat. p. 122 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 127 ; Horsf. & Moore, 
Cat. B. Mus. E. 1. Co. i. p. 147 (1854) ; Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 455 (1862). 
Culicicapa cinereocapilla, Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 381. 
Myialestes cinereocapiUa, Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 441 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, i. p. 205 
(1873) ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 18. 
Culicicapa ceylonensis, Fairbank, Str. Feath. 1877, p. 401 ; Hume, B. of Tenass., Str. Featli. 
1878, p. 226; Sharpe, Cat. Birds, iv. p. 369 (1879). 
The Ceylonese Flatbill, Swainson ; Znd phutki, Beng. 
Adult male ami female. LengLh 4-9 to 5-2 indies ; wing 2-4 to 2-6 ; tail 1'9 to 2-2 ; tarsus 0-55 to 0-6 : mid toe and 
claw 0‘45 to O'o ; bill to gape 0'55. 
Iris brown; bill, upper mandible blackish, lower fleshy at base, with the tip dark; legs and feet brownish yellow 
yellowish brown, or greyish yellow ; soles yellow, claws pale brownish. 
Lores, head, hind neck, and cheeks cinereous grey, the centres of the feathers on the head blackish slate-colour ; on the 
hind neck the grey blends into the greenish yellow of the back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and rump, the latter being 
more yellow than the back ; wings and tail dark brown, edged with the hue of the rump, except on the two outer 
primaries and the lateral rectrices ; orbital fringe greyish ; throat, chest, and sides of neck pale ashy grey, blending 
. into the grey of the upper parts ; beneath, from the chest, saffron-yellow, shaded with greenish on the sides of the 
breast and flanks ; under wing-coverts greenish yellow. 
Young. Immature birds in their first plumage almost resemble adults ; the lores are greyish, and the colourino- of the 
breast more overcast with greenish ; the wing-coverts are tipped with yellowish, and the lower parts not so°vellow 
as in the adult. ^ 
Ohs. I have compared an extensive series of this species with Ceylonese examples, with the following results A 
Cashmere, a Pegu, a West-Javan, and a N.W.-Himalayan example are all slightly yellower on the back than the 
majority of Ceylonese birds, and vary in the wing from 2-25 to 2-o, the latter measurement being that of the 
Pegu example. Another specimen, from the N.W. Himalayas, is paler than all, and has the rump yellower and 
the quills more conspicuously edged than in the rest of the series. A Sarawak example is an exact match with 
t lose in my collection from Ceylon. It therefore appears that this species is spread over a very large geographical 
area, with but little variation in the character of its plumage. 
Dish ibution. In Ceylon the present species is essentially a hill -bird, and is, within its own limits, the 
most abundant of its family in the island. It inhabits the Kandyan Province from the Horton Plains and the 
tops of the highest ranges down to a general elevation of about 1800 feet ; in the wilderness of the Peak 
however, I have met with it at an altitude of only 1000 feet, a little above the pretty elevated plain of Gilly- 
mally. In the southern coffee-districts it is quite as numerous as in the Central Province, and it is also found 
in the more elevated parts of the Kukkul Korale, as well as in the great Singha-Rajah forest. In large tracts 
of mountain-forest, such as those covering much of the Nuwara-Elliya plateau and its great outlying spurs 
and the upper portion of the Knuckles range, it is more abundant than in the lower-lying coffee- districts which 
have been denuded of forest. 
Jerdon writes that the Grey-headed Flycatcher is dispersed throughout all India, from the Himalayas to 
the Ndghiris, the only locality in the south of India where it is common being the summits of the latter hills. 
In Central India it is occasionally met with, and is not rare in Lower Bengal. As it is so common in Ceylon 
