3 20 
ALLEN’S NATURALIST’S LIBRARY. 
parison with some of the genera of Flycatchers. The wings 
are long, but fall considerably short of the length of the tail ; 
the second primary exceeds the length of the secondaries and 
almost equals the third in length, being about equal to the 
fifth ; the bill is somewhat long, the culminal ridge being more 
than twice the length of the bill at the gape. 
The stronghold of the genus Muscicapa appears to be the 
continent of Africa, where no less than six or seven species are 
resident. Africa is also the winter home of our own migratory 
M. grisola , which is represented in the East by an allied species, 
M. griseislicta, which inhabits China in summer and winters in 
the Philippine Islands and the Moluccas. 
THE COMMON FLYCATCHER. MUSCICAPA GRISOLA. 
Muscicapa grisola, Linn., Syst. Nat., i., p. 3 2 ^ ( 1 7 * 36 ) ; Macg., 
Br. B‘, iii., p. 518 (1840); Newt. ed. Yarn, 1., p. 220 
(1S72); Dresser, B. Eur. iii., p. 447, pi. 156(1875); Sharpe, 
Cat. B. Brit. Mus., iv., p. 15 1 (1879) 1 B - °- U - Llst Br - 
B., p. 40 (1883) ; Seeb., Br. B., i., p. 323 (1883) ; Saunders, 
Man., p. 149 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Br. B., pt xxvi. 
(1893). 
Adult Male. — General colour above uniform ashy-brown, 
streaked with darker brown on the head, and slightly paler on 
the rump and upper tail-coverts, the latter having obsolete pale 
margins ; lesser wing-coverts like the back ; median and greater 
coverts dark brown, externally ashy-brown, inclining to whitish 
at the ends ; primary-coverts and quills dark brown, externally 
edged with reddish-brown, the inner secondaries paler at the 
ends • lores, sides of face, and ear-coverts uniform dark brown ; 
cheeks and under surface of body dull white, the breast and 
sides of the body pale isabelline brown, faintly washed with 
brown streaks on the flanks, and more distinctly on the lower 
throat and fore-neck ; thighs brown ; under tail-coverts white ; 
under wing-coverts and axillaries sandy-isabelhne ; quills dusky 
below, ashy along the inner webs ; bill brown, paler at base of 
lower mandible ; feet black ; iris dusky brown. Total length, 
5-8 inches ; oilmen, o'6 ; wing, 3'4 ; tail, 2-35 ; tarsus, o 55. 
‘ Range in Great Britain.— Nests almost universally throughout 
