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Show 270 MR. R. B. SHARPE O N [May 15, Fam. MUSCICAPID.E. MUSCICAPULA HYPERYTHRA (Blyth). Muscicapula hyperythra, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iv. p. 206; Salvad. t. c. p. 203. "No. 93. 8 ad. Ulu Batang Padang (4200 feet). " Irides dark brown ; legs and feet flesh-colour. Frequents the undergrowth in the forests." This little Flycatcher is now recorded from the Malayan Peninsula for the first time. Its presence was, however, to be suspected, as the species occurs in the Eastern Himalayas and again in Java and Sumatra. MUSCICAPULA WESTERMANNI, sp. n. "No. 115. 8 ad. Gunong Ulu Batang Padang (4200 feet). " Irides light brown." Adult male. General colour above blue-grey, with a slight brown wash on the scapulars and lower back ; rump ochreous brown ; upper tail-coverts a little more rufescent; wing-coverts dusky, edged with ochreous brown ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills blackish, fringed with olive-brown, the secondaries rather more rufescent on the base of the outer web ; tail-feathers brown, externally rufous-brown; head blue-grey like the back, a little more hoary on the forehead ; lores and eyelid white; ear-coverts and sides of face blue-grey, with a few whitish lines on the former; throat white, with a slight ashy tinge ; remainder of under surface of body white, the sides of the breast ashy grey; sides of body also washed with ashy grey; under tail-coverts white; thighs ashy ; axillaries and under wing-coverts white, the edge of the wing blackish ; quills dusky below, white along the edge of the inner web. Total length 3*7 inches, culmen 0-45, wing 2-2, tail 1-55, tarsus 0'55. This is a very curious form, recalling the characters of several of the other Muscicapulce. It may not be the fully adult of its species, but I believe it to be so. The reddish upper tail-coverts and tail remind one of the female of M. maculata, but the blue-grey upper surface distinguishes it at a glance. The female and young male of M. superciliaris have generally an ochreous tinge on the throat which distinguish them ; but one specimen from Sikhim is white below like M. westermanni, while the upper surface is brown and the shade of blue which is seen on it (it is apparently a young male) is not slaty blue, but bright blue as in the adults. TERPSIPHONE AFFINIS (Blyth). Terpsiphone affinis, Oates, B. Brit. Burm. i. p. 261. Muscipeta affinis, Hume, Str. F. 1879, p. 58. "No. 118. 8 ad. Batang Padang Mountains, Perak. " Irides dark brown ; bill black ; legs and feet same. This species occurs in Penang, Province Wellesley, and the Batang Padang District of Perak, but in Larut it is replaced by a slightly larger and whiter species." |