Ordo INSESSORES.
Tribus DENTIROSTRES.
Kam. MuscicaPip&.

Genus MuscicaPa.

Tas. VI.
MUSCICAPA MELANOPS.

Mase. Musc. unicolor ceesio-cerulea ; regione rictali circumocularique atris ; caudd subtis Susco-
atra.
Foem. minis intensé colorata ; viridisque magis quam cerulea.

Longitudo corporis, 6 unc. ; ale, 3+; rostri, +; tarsi, +; caude, 22.

Tur Muscicapa Melanops presents a new feature among the Fly-catchers as it regards style of colouring, being
intermediate between those of the East endowed with brilliant scarlet, and others in our northern regions
which possess a more unostentatious and quiet livery. The only species which we know to approach the
present in the tints of its plumage is one introduced to science by Dr. Horsfield under the name of Muscicapa
Indigo, but which possesses characters sufficiently distinguishing it as a separate species.

Although little is known respecting the habits and manners of the WZ. Melanops, still, as we have seen it
in collections from other parts of India, we are able to say that it is extensively spread, since it thus appears
that it is found in the Dukhun as well as in the range of the Himalaya mountains, doubtless at their more
temperate altitudes, their stationary residence being most probably determined by the abundance of food,
which is well known to consist of the softer-winged insects.

The whole of the upper and under surface is of lively verditer blue changing in different lights to various
tints of green ; beak, legs, and the under webs of the quill-feathers, as well as the intermediate space between
the eye and the base of the bill, black. Female rather less than the male, which it greatly resembles, but
from which it may be distinguished by a less brilliant colour, and by the absence of the black mark between
the bill and the eye.

The Plate represents a male and female of the natural size.