It never takes a long flight, and almost invariably perches on a branch
not more than two feet above the ground. It emits a low cheeping
note--a _chur-r-r_, which is not unlike the sound made by some
insects.
The Nilgiri blue-flycatcher (_Stoparola albicaudata_) is
stoutly-built and a little larger than a sparrow. The male is clothed
from head to tail in dark blue; his wife is more dingy, having a
plentiful admixture of brownish grey in her plumage. Blue-flycatchers
often occur in little flocks. They have the usual habits of their
family, except that they seem sometimes to eat fruit.
A pretty little bird, of which the head, back, tail, and wings are
deep blue, and the breast is orange fading into pale yellow towards
the abdomen, is Tickell's blue-flycatcher (_Cyornis tickelli_). It
has the characteristic habits of its tribe, and continually makes,
from a perch, little sallies into the air after flying insects. But,
more often than not it starts from one branch, and, having secured
its quarry, alights on another. It sings a joyous lay, not unlike
that of the fantail-flycatcher, but less sweet and powerful. It nests
in a hole in a tree or bank, laying in May two or three eggs very
thickly speckled with red spots.
The grey-headed flycatcher (_Culicicapa ceylonensis_) is a bird of
somewhat sombre plumage. Its total length is only five inches, and
of this half is composed of tail. The head is ashy grey, the back
and wings are greenish; the lower plumage is bright yellow, but this
is not conspicuous except when the bird is on the wing. This flycatcher
has a loud song, which may be syllabised: _Think of me.... Never to
be_.
The white-browed fantail-flycatcher (_Rhipidura albifrontata_),
which delights the inhabitants of Madras with its cheerful whistle
of five or six notes, occurs on the Nilgiris, but is there largely
replaced by an allied species--the white-spotted fantail-flycatcher
(_R. pectoralis_). The latter has all the habits of the former. Both
make the same melody, and each has the habit of spreading out and
erecting the tail whenever it settles on a perch after a flight. The
white-spotted is distinguishable from the white-browed species by
the white eyebrow being much narrower and less conspicuous. It is
a black bird with a white abdomen, some white in the wings and tail,
a few white spots on the chin, and the white eyebrow mentioned above.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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