Very common on the outskirts of long grass, or on shrubs in the open. I did
not observe it on the Kakhyen hills, although it is very common at Tsikkaw at
their base, on the Burmese side, and it appears to extend to the valleys on the
Chinese face of those hills, as I shot a female at Momien.
The Calcutta Museum possesses a young female of this species from the north
of Simla. The general colour is a light cinereous brown vinaceous, rufescent on the
breast, passing into pale rufescent buff on the abdomen. The head, neck, back, chin,
throat and breast are spotted with white, the spots small on the upper parts, and
large on the hinder surface. I t is smaller than the general average of Indian
birds.
85. P r a t ín c o l a in d i c a , Blyth.
Saxícola rubicola, Sykes, Proc. Zool. Soc., p. 91, 1882.
Saxícola satwatior, Hodgs., in Gray's Zool. Misc., p. 88, 1844.
Pratíncola indica, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xvi, p. 129,1847; id., Cat. B. Mus., As. Soc.,
Bengal, p. 170, 1849; Bonap. Consp., p. 805, 1850; Gould., B. Asia, pt. xv, pi. xii, 1863;
Jerdon, B. Ind., vol. ii, p. 124, 1868; Beavan, Ibis, 1867, p. 446; Gray, Handl. B., i, p. 228,
1869; Blanford, Ibis, 1870, p. 466; Godwin-Austen, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xxxix,
p. 106, 1870; Swinboe, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1871, p. 860; Cock. & Marsh., Stray Feathers, 1878,
p. 855; Stol., op. cit., 1874, p. 464; Ball, t. c., p. 413; Butler, op. cit., 1875, p. 475; Blyth
& Walden, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xliv, 1875, extra No., p. 102, 1875; Butler, Stray
Feathers, 1876, p. 3 5 ; Scully, t. <?., p. 142; Fairbank, t. c., p. 259; Brooks, t. c., p. 274;
Armstrong, t. c., p. 827; Taczanowski, Journ. fiir Omith., 1876, p. 194; Hume, Stray
Feathers, 1877, p. 86; Butler, t. c., p. 229; Hume, t. c., pp. 241 and 242, e t seq.
Pratíncola satwatior, Horsfield & Moore, Cat. B., p. 285, 1854.
Pratíncola robusta, Tristram, Ibis, 1870, p. 497; Hume, Stray Feathers, 1877, p. 181.
Pratíncola rubicola, Hume, Stray Feathers, 1878, p. 183; id., Lahore to Yarkand, p. 204, 1873 ;
id., Stray Feathers, 1874, p. 283; op. cit., 1875, p. 134; id., Nests and Eggs, p. 816, 1873.
a. t Upper Burma.
b. c. $ d. e. $ Bhamö, 22nd and 28th January 1868.
f . g. S Tsitkaw, 7th and 9th February 1875.
h. i. S Sand flats below Bhamö, 81st January 1875.
j . S Sawady, Sand flats above, 31st January 187 5.
k. 4 I. m. $ Ponsee, 13th March 1868.
n. juv. Manwyne, 3rd May 1868. ’
o. p . q. t r. juv. Momien, 30th May to 1st June 1868.
A male shot at Bhamd on 22nd January has the head, neck, and back black,
but the feathers of the nape are finely edged with rufous, and those on the back,
wing coverts and rump, broadly so. In one, shot on 13th March, only a very few
feathers on the middle of the back are tipped with rufous, and in another, shot on
31st May 1868, there is no trace of rufous on any of the feathers on the upper surface.
The only difference I can detect in females shot at the same intervals of
time is a tendency in the rufous of the under parts to become darker. Two young
birds shot on 3rd and 30th May are dark-brown above, with a central rufous streak
on the head feathers, and a broad rufous spot with a brown tip on each of the
feathers of the back. The wing coverts are broadly edged with rufous, and the
secondaries are the same. The tail has a rufous tip. All the under surface is rich
rufous; the feathers on the chin, throat and breast being tipped with dark-brown.
This was a very common bird all along our route from Bham6, as far as
Momien, where I shot it in the month of June, and where I am inclined to believe
it breeds. I t was usually found near long grass, or low shrubs.
Family—MUSCICAPIDJS!.
Genus M u s c i c a p u l a , Blyth.
86. M u s c ic a p u l a s a p p h i r a , Blyth.
Muscicapula sapphira, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc.,Bengal, vol.xii, p. 939, 1843 ; ex Tickell MS.; Jerdon,
111. Ind. Om., pi. xxxii, 1849; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus., As. Soc., Bengal, p. 173, 1849; Bonap.
Consp., t . i, p. 816, 1850; Horsfield & Moore, Cat. B. Mus., As. Soc., Bengal, vol. i/p . 295,
1856; Jerdon, B. Ind., vol. i, p. 471, 1862; Godwin-Austen, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, 1872,
vol. xii, p. 172.
Muscicapa sapphira, Gray, Gen. B., vol. i, p. 268, 1846; id., Handl. B., vol. i, p. 822, 1869.
a. t Ponsee, 19th April 1868.
This specimen differs only in one respect from Tickell’s description, but the
difference is so trifling that I cannot regard it as giving the bird any higher position
than that of a local variety. I t is this—there is no broad median ferruginous line,
properly so called, on the ventral aspect. This band of colour is broken up by the
blue of the side of the neck and breast into two areas, one on the chin and anterior
part of the throat, bounded below by a gorget of blue, mixed with some ferruginous
feathers, and succeeded by a small ferruginous area on the commencement of
the breast, bounded below and on the sides by a broad blue area, in which a number
of white feathers occur. The abdomen and under tail coverts are white. Jerdon
states that the feet are brown, whereas Tickell describes these as black, the colour I
found them to be.
Genus C y o r n i s , Blyth.
87. C y o r n i s r u b e c u l o id e s , Vigors.
Phumicwra rubeculoides, Vigors, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1881, p. 85; Gould, Cent. Himal. B., pi. xxv,
fig. 1, 1882.
Niltaoa brevipes, Hodgs., Ind. Rev., vol. i, p. 650, 1887.
Muscicapa rubecula, Swains., Monogr. Flycatch.,-p. 221, pi. xxvii c, 1888.
Cyornis rubeculoides, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xii, p. 941, 1842; id., Cat. B. Mus., As.
Soc., Bengal, p. 178, 1849 ; Bonap. Consp., i, p. 820, 1850; Horsfield & Moore, Cat. B. Mus.
E. Ind. Co., vol. ii, p. 289,1854; Jerdon, B. Ind., vol. i, p. 466,1862; Blyth, Ibis, 1866, p. 371;
Blanford, Ibis, 1870, p. 468; Holdsw., Proc. Zool. Soc., 1872, p. 442; Blyth & Walden, Journ.
As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xliv, 1875, ex. No., p. 108, 1875; Hume, Stray Feathers, 1875, p. 105;
Brooks, t. c., p. 285; Walden, Ibis, 1876, p. 858; Hume, Stray Feathers, 1877, p. 889;
W. T. Blanford, t. c., p. 484.