416 
ALSEONAX LATIEOSTEIS. 
India m October and departing again in the following April. It spreads over the whole low country, but is 
nowhere very plentiful, and liable to he passed over, as it is of solitary habits. From the low lands it ascends 
mto the coffee-districts to an altitude of about 3500 feet. About Colombo and on the west coast generally 
It IS fairly common, inhabiting trees in the vicinity of houses or even in the town itself, and it is liable to be 
met with anywhere in the interior. 
It was described from Sumatra by Eaffles, but does not appear to have been procured there of late years, 
althoiigh It is not uncommonly met with in Java, Borneo, and Malacca j it is of course a winter visitor to all 
this region and also to the Andamans, where Lieut. Wardlaw Eamsay procured it in December, January 
and February. According to Swinhoe it summers in China, and does the same in Japan and Eastern Siberia, 
in which regions it no doubt chiefly breeds, and from which it migrates at the latter end of the year to India 
Tenasserim, and Malasia. In Tenasscrim, singularly enough, Mr. Hume says that it has only been observed 
in the southern half of the province. It does not appear to be found in Burmah, and is not recorded by 
Ml. Inglis from Cachar; it is therefore somewhat difficult to follow its line of migration to India from China 
and North-eastern Siberia ; and it may be that the birds which visit the plains of India, the southern part of 
the peninsula, and Ceylon breed in the Himalayas. Jerdon writes that A. terricolor of Hodgson inhabits the 
Himalayas at no great elevation, and visits the plains in the cool season, which implies, of course, that it 
^mmers in the mountains j it will be observed also that the young bird which I have described above is from 
Nepal. It does not extend into North-western India, keeping quite to the cast until it gets to the Deccan 
where Messrs. Davidson and Wender obtained it at Sholapoor and Mr. Fairbank at Khandala. In the 
Travancore hills Mr. Bourdillon says it is common during the winter months. 
This Flycatcher resembks in its economy the common species of Europe {Muscicapa arisola) and 
reminds one much of this latter species. It takes up its abode in shady trees, often in the middle of towns 
and villages, or on the borders of streams, in native gardens, and even in the recesses of the dry forests of the 
north. It chooses in the latter localities a spot whieh is cheered by the rays of the sun, and quietly perches 
on the low branch of a tree, every now and then making an active dart on a passing insect and returning 
with it to its perch. It is very silent and exceedingly tame, sitting fearlessly in the most public situations, 
entirely regardless of the busy hum of human life. It now and then utters a weak note after catching an 
insect, and will then sit perfectly motionless until it espies some other object of pursuit. 
