MtJSCICAPA HYPEEYTHRA. 
(NIETNER^S ROBIN FLYCATCHER.) 
Sipliia hyperythra, Cabauis, Journ. fiir Orn. 1866, p. 391 ; Walden, Ibis, 1872, p. 472. 
Menetica hyperythra, Cabanis, Journ. fiir Orn. 1866, p. 401. 
Niltava hyperythra^ Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 326. no. 4901 (1869). 
Erythrosterna hyperythra, Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 442, pi. 17 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, 
p. 217 (1873); Brooks, Str. Eeath. 1875, p. 236. 
Mmcicapa hyperythra, Sharpe, Cat. B. iv. p. 163 (1879). 
The Bohin, Planters in Ceylon. 
Adult male. Length 4-6 to 5T inches; •ndng 2-6 to 2'7 ; tail 2-0; tarsus 0'7 to 0-8 ; mid toe and claw 0-6 to 0'65 ; 
bill to gape O' 6. 
Female. Slightly smaller ; wing 2'5 to 2'6 inches. 
Ii'is hazel-brown ; bill above brown, pale next the forehead ; gape and lower mandible fleshy yellow, with the tip 
dusky; inside of mouth yellow; legs and feet deep brown; soles yellowish. 
Male. Head and upper siu-face dusky cinereous brown, changing to ashen on the face and sides of neck ; wings 
brown, edged with cinereous, the margins of the greater coverts being slightly ochraceous ; upper tad-coverts, 
four centre tail-feathers, and terminal portion of the rest wdth all but the base of the outer web of the lateral 
feather black ; these latter, the two next pairs, and the outer web of the adjacent are white for two thirds of the 
length from the base ; lores ashen ; orbital fringe dusky grey ; chin, throat, breast, and sides of belly rich 
rufous, changing to white on the belly and vent, and bounded on the fore neck by a bold hlaclc border from 
the gape to the upper flanks ; under tail-coverts yellowish buff and concolorous with the lower flanks ; under 
wing-coverts the same. 
Female. Upper surface with a more earthy tint than the male; the black of the tail not quite so intense ; lores pale, 
orbital fringe greyish ; ear-coverts pale-shafted ; chin, throat, and upper breast less bright than in the male, 
and not divided from the hue of the hind neck by a black border. 
Touyig. Bill paler than in the adult ; legs and feet plumbeous brown. 
Males in first plumage have the chin, throat, and lower breast white, with a rufous wash across the chest ; this after- 
wards deepens and spreads up the throat, in which stage the black border begins to appear, and distinguishes it 
from the young female ; from this to the adult stage all gradations of rufous colouring in the chest exist. 
Females in nestling plumage are paler brown above than adults ; the lores, cheeks, and orbits the same ; chin and 
chest greyish, with a slight ochraceous tint on the latter ; flanks and under tail-coverts faintly tinged with fulvous. 
Ohs. This Robin Flycatcher is the Indian representative of the European species M. parva, to which it is closelv 
allied, differing from it in the presence of the black border which separates the rufous throat from the ashen sides 
of the neck. A male example of M. parva from Etawah measures 2'7 inches in the wing, and has the throat 
and fore neck, but not the chest, paler rufous-orange than in M. hyperythra ; and the back is of a more earthy hue 
than that of the latter species ; the three outer pairs of tail-feathers are marked similarly, but the fourth has 
some white on the inner web, as well as the outer. 
Distribution . — Interesting as are the movements of migratory birds, there are one or two of our Ceylonese 
visitants which, for the ornithologist, ])ossess a more than ordinary amount of attraction, inasmuch as they 
mysteriously appear in the island from well-known distant summer quarters without having left any trace of 
their presence in the regions through which they would naturally be disposed to pass, thereby rendering their 
line of migration a matter of conjecture. Of these the present species forms one of the most remarkable 
instances in our list. It is migratory to Ceylon, and yet was first discovered there so recently as 1860 bv 
