PERCHING BIRDS. 
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being ashy grey; the wing-feathers black with white bases, the tail black-edged 
with white on the outer webs; the forehead white, and a white collar completely 
encircling the hind-neck; the throat and lower-parts are pure white. 
Red-Breasted The red-breasted flycatcher (M. parva ) is a summer visitant 
Flycatcher, to Eastern Europe, occasionally wandering into the western part 
of the Continent. Always a rare local bird, though frequently overlooked, and 
occasionally straggling to the shores of the British Isles on autumnal migration, 
it breeds in beech-forests, constructing its nest in some natural cavity, or between 
a bunch of small twigs and the main stem. The nest is built almost entirely 
WHITE COLLARED AND RED-BREASTED FLY-CATCHER (§ nat. size). 
of moss, with a little lichen and hairs; and the eggs are pale bluish green in 
ground-colour, freckled with reddish and greyish brown. The song is simple and 
unpretentious, but the actions of the bird are full of life and energy. The adult 
male has the upper-parts ashy brown; the two central tail-feathers being dark 
brown, and the remainder for the greater part white; while the cheeks, throat, 
and fore-neck are clear orange, and the rest of the under surface white. 
Paradise- Commonplace and devoid of anything striking in their plumage, 
Flycatchers, the typical flycatchers agree with a large assemblage of genera in 
having the tail considerably shorter than the wing. Leaving these, we pass on to 
consider briefly a much more beautiful but smaller group of genera, in which the 
tail equals or exceeds the wing in length. From their allies, the paradise- 
flycatchers {Terpsiphone) are distinguished by the crested head, and the great 
length of the middle pair of tail-feathers. The bill is very large, much depressed, 
