FLYCATCHERS. 
5*9 
and swollen, with numerous long and coarse bristles at the rictus. Distributed 
all over India and the adjacent regions, the paradise-flycatchers have the sexes 
almost or completely alike for the first two years, when the prevailing coloration 
of the plumage is chestnut. This dress is never changed by the hen birds; but 
sometimes after the second autumn the cocks assume a beautiful white plumage, 
and it thus happens that in some cases both members of a pair may be breeding 
in the chestnut dress, instead of the male being far more gorgeous than his 
partner. Writing of the Indian paradise-flycatcher ( T . jjaradisi), whose range 
extends from Ceylon to Kashmir, Leith Adams observes, that in the plains of 
India “ its singularly attractive plumage can scarcely escape observation. The 
adult male has a blue head and white body, with two of the tail-feathers prolonged 
for upwards of eight inches beyond the tip; those in the female scarcely extending 
beyond a quarter of an inch. The young birds are chestnut. The paradise- 
flycatcher does not possess great power of flight, except when hunting for insects; 
then its movements are quick, it suddenly appears on a branch beside you, and the 
next moment is seen shooting like an arrow through the grove, at times uttering a 
harsh chirp—now perched on the upper bough of a tamarind, now on the lower 
one of a neighbouring tree—spectre-like it suddenly appears, and is as quickly 
gone.” The five eggs laid by the hen are pink spotted with brownish red. 
Fantaii- Our notice of the family may be brought to an end by a brief 
Flycatchers, mention of the fantail-flycatchers (Rhipidurcc ), which, while differing 
from the members of the preceding genus by the absence of a crest on the head 
are distinguished from the other crestless forms of the group by the length of the 
tail considerably exceeding that of the wing. Possessing a short depressed bill, 
broad at the base, with the culmen arched, and the upper mandible notched, these 
birds have the nostrils oval, basal, and nearly covered by the rictal bristles; while 
the tail is ample and rounded, and the feet are moderate and slender. Full of 
life and energy, hopping merrily from bough to bough, the fantails construct 
beautiful little nests covered with cobwebs. 
Between forty and fifty species of fantails are known, inhabiting the Oriental 
and Australian regions, and ranging to Tasmania and the islands of the Malay 
Archipelago. Thus Layard’s fantaii inhabits the Fiji group of islands, while the 
white-bellied fantaii is found in the islands of the Philippine Archipelago, and the 
sooty fantaii is peculiar to New Zealand. The white - browed fantaii ranges 
from Ceylon to the Himalaya; while the Javan fantaii inhabits Tenasserim, Siam, 
Cochin China, and the Malay Peninsula. One of the best known of the Indian 
fantails is the wliite-browed species ( R. albifrontata), which breeds all over the 
plains of India, sometimes nesting in a bush but generally in a mango tree. The 
nest is cup-shaped and deep, framed of fine stems of grass, and lined with fine grass 
roots and a little hair; the exterior being coated with cobwebs. It is generally 
placed upon the upper surface of a nearly horizontal bough; and the eggs are 
white in ground-colour, with many minute brown specks, and a fine zone of 
greyish brown at the larger end. This fantaii rears two broods in a season. 
The adult male has the crown, lores, and ear-coverts black, the forehead white; 
the wings and upper-parts ashy brown, the cheeks and throat black, tipped with 
white; the sides of the breast black; and the remainder of the lower-parts white. 
