more yellowish-green; edge and shoulder of the wing deep blue, and its under surface marked with pale buff-yellow as in B. cyanops; forehead and occiput crimson; the crown and throat bright glistening orange around the eye black, continued backward to the sides of the occiput, where mixed with green: the ear-coverts were being moulted in the specimen, but appear to be coming of a mixed green and blue, and the feathers growing at the base of the lower mandible are crimson. Bill dusky-black, whitish at base of lower mandible; and legs evidently greenish, or a sort of lead-colour tinged with green, as in B. cyanops: tail also, as in that species, verditer underneath. From Darjeeling; and dedicated to Major James Franklin, F. R. S., &c., a highly meritorious pioneer among the investigators of Indian Ornithology, whose still useful "Catalogue of Birds collected on the Ganges between Calcutta and Benares, and in the Vindhyian hills between the latter place and Gurra Mundela, on the Nurbudda," is published in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1835, pp. 114 to 125, and republished in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, I, 260 et

seq.

7. Cuculus micropterus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1837, 137. The Bocuttácko of Bengal, so named from its cry.*

8. C. Sonneratii, Latham, Ind. Orn. II. 215; le petit Coucou des Indes, Sonnerat, Voy. Ind. IV. 216; C. Himalayanus, Vigors, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1831, 172, Gould's Century, Pl. LIV: all these notices referring to the female. I have a monograph of the Indian Cuculidæ in preparation, and therefore defer for the present what remarks I have to offer on this and the preceding species.

9. Trogon Hodgsonii ? Gould (I have no description to refer to): Tr. fasciatus, Var. A., Latham, Gen. Hist. Birds, III. 213; but having no white pectoral bar: marked female. Length nearly 13 inches, of wing from bend 6 inches, and middle tail feathers 7 inches, the outermost 3 inches shorter. Colour of the upper parts, neck and breast, deep chestnut-brown, darkest on the head, and brightening to the rump and upper tail-coverts; belly crimson: smaller wing-coverts and tertiaries externally, finely undulated black and brown, the rest of the wing blackish with

*The Asiatic Society has received this species from the Malay peninsula, and it is included in Mr. Vigne's catalogue of his collection of birds procured in Kashmir and Little Tibet, (Proc. Zool. Soc., January 26, 1841.)

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white exterior margins to most of the primaries; tail as in Tr. throcephalus and Tr. Malabaricus (vide P. Z. S., 1834, 25-6).

ery

10. Edolius Crishna, Gould, P. Z. S., 1836, 5; Corvus Crishna, Buchanan Hamilton; Crishna Crow, Latham, Gen. Hist. Birds, III, 51; Criniger splendens, Tickell, J. A. S., II, 574; Cometes (olim Chibia) casia, Hodgson, Ind. Rev. 1837, 324, and J. A. S., 1841, 29. (HAIRCRESTED DRONGO). This remarkable and handsome species is not rare about Calcutta, but would appear to be more common in all three regions of Nepâl, and there is a specimen in the collection from Darjeeling.

11. E. remifer, Tem. Pl. Col. 178, apud Shaw's Zoology, XIII. part 2, 140. Mr. Jerdon, I presume, means this by the term retifer (probably a misprint), which he includes in his valuable catalogue of the birds of Peninsular India (Madr. Jour. No. xxv. 241); but he adds L. Malabaricus, Shaw, as a synonym, which name is founded on an erroneous identification of two species, and has since been currently bestowed on a third distinct from both, as all are from the present one. This (which is not likely to be Mr. Jerdon's bird) is distinguished from every other known to me, with the exception of one described by Mr. Hodgson (Ind. Rev., 1837, 325-6), by having the terminal 4 inches of the prolonged naked shafts of its outermost tail-feathers barbed equally on both sides; while from Mr. Hodgson's Melisseus (olim Bhringa) tectirostris, as described by that naturalist, it differs in the Shrikelike form of its bill, the upper mandible of which is strongly hooked, in the comparative shortness of its tarse, and in the feathers of its crown and occiput being of a scale-like form, and not lanceolate like those of the neck: length 10 inches, of wing from bend 54 inches, and tail 5 inches, being even at the tip, except that the vanes of the outermost feather on each side are shorter than the rest, while the shaft is prolonged and barbless for 8 inches, having then 4 inches of barb as described, 1 inch in width; moreover, these stems and barbed tips are straight, without any tendency to spire, as in most of the other species. Bill to forehead inch in a straight line, the tip of the upper mandible much hooked, and its base impended by an elevated ridge of recurved feathers, successively longer to the front: tarse inch. Colour altogether richly steeled black, with a brilliant metallic shine, the coronal feathers scale-like, the nuchal hackled, and the pectoral intermediate.

Among the racket-tailed species in the Asiatic Society's Museum, I distinguish the following:

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E. grandis, Gould, P. Z. S., 1836, 5; Cometes (olim Chibia) Malabaroides, Hodgson, Ind. Rev., 1837, 325; E. Malabaricus, Shaw's Zoology, VIÍ, 293, and figured in Stephens's Appendix to the same, Vol. XIII, Part II, 140, which figure is taken from Latham's General History of Birds, II, 57, where it would seem to have been copied from one of Lady Impey's drawings alluded to in the text, as differing somewhat from the species there described. Shaw erroneously identifies his bird with 'le Grand Gobe-mouche de la côte de Malabar" of Sonnerat (Voy. iv, 162); and Sonnerat identifies his species as that noticed by Buffon sous le nom de Drongo de la côte de Malabar:" referring then to Buffon (Oiseaux, iv, 587), we read, On trouve aussi une espèce de Drongo, à la côte de Malabar, d'ou il nous a été envoyé par M. Sonnerat ; il est un peu plus grand que celui de Madagascar ou de la Chine; il a comme eux le plumage entiérement noir; mais il a le bec plus fort et plus épais, il manque de huppe, et le charactére qui le distingue le plus, consiste" in the prolonged shafts of the exterior tail-feathers, &c. Hence the Malabar Shrike of Sonnerat, or Malabar Drongo of Buffon, is not the Lanius Malabaricus of Shaw, who informs us, that " on the head, springing immediately above the base of the upper mandible, is a large rising tuft, consisting of many plumes of different lengths, and much resembling that of the Rose-coloured Ousel:" now this applies distinctly to the E. grandis, Gould, wherein the frontal feathers recline backward over the occiput; but it will not apply to the species referred to by Mr. Gould as E. Malabaricus, which again is different from that of Sonnerat and Buffon; the latter being probably the E. Rangoonensis, Gould, which, it may be suspected, is also Mr. Jerdon's species. Under these circumstances, I conceive that the specific term Malabaricus had much better be disused altogether, for which reason I have headed this notice with the more appropriate name bestowed on the present species by Mr. Gould. The following is a description of the specimen before me. Length, to extremity of penultimate tail feathers, 14 inches; of wing from bend 63 inches; of middle tail feather 5 inches; of penultimate 63 inches, and the shaft of the outermost extending 8 inches beyond, having the terminal 33 inches barbed externally, but towards the tip only on the inner web, and spiring inward till the under-surface becomes uppermost

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at the tip: bill to forehead inch, and to gape above 1 inch; very feebly hooked, and rather less compressed than in the next species: tarse 1 inch, hind-toe and claw rather more. Frontal crest about twice the length of that of E. cristatellus (Nobis), measuring fully 24 inches, and reclining back beyond the occiput : coronal feathers slightly hackled, the occipital and nuchal strongly so, and those on the fore-neck shaped as on the crown. Plumage generally somewhat loose and puffy : and colour uniformly black, with a steel-blue gloss. I have seen this species alive, in the possession of a native. Its song is very fine; loud and sonorous, with the deep tone of the European Blackbird. The specimen described is from Tenasserim; and the species is known to range from Nepal and Assam to Sumatra.

E. cristatellus, Nobis; E. Malabaricus of Gould and most recent authors, but not of Shaw, nor the Malabar Drongo or Shrike of Buffon and Sonnerat. Shaw's species, it would seem, remained unnoticed for long period, during which the name Malabaricus came to be applied to the present nearly allied one, but it remains to be shewn that either of these inhabits the Malabar coast, or any part of the Indian peninsula. That now under consideration is inferior in size to the preceding, with frontal crest but half as long, and vaguely comparable to that of Pastor cristatellus, as the crest of E. grandis has been compared to that of P. roseus: in the finest specimens, when pressed down, this barely reaches to the occiput, and as usually elevated it does not recline beyond the middle of the head, its longest feathers measuring generally under 14 inch. Length, to extremity of penultimate tail feather, 13 inches or somewhat less; of wing from bend 5 to 6 inches, and middle tail feathers 5 to 6 inches, the penultimate 64 to 6 inches, and the prolonged stem and terminal barb of the outermost with its amount of twirl the same as in E. grandis. Plumage also generally similar, with the exception of the crest, the shorter feathers of which describe an equal curvature to the longer ones of E. grandis. The young differ only in the looser texture of their feathers, which underneath and on the rump are glossless fuscous, while the forehead is not more crested than in the next species, and the feathers of the crown and neck are not hackled, but of flimsy texture and rounded at the tips, where alone they are glossed: the greater length of the tail readily distinguishes them from the species next noticed; and the specimens here described. are from the Tenasserim coast.

E. Rangoonensis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1836, 5. "Distinguishable from E. Malabaricus [subcristatus], to which it is nearly allied, by its shorter beak, and by the total absence from its forehead of the fine curled plumes which decorate that bird; the wing also is somewhat shorter." Gould, loc. cit. In the catalogue of Dr. McClelland's birds from Assam, however, Dr. Horsfield writes: One of our specimens agrees accurately with Mr. Gould's specific character; in two others, the crest is less developed, and the lanceolate plumes on the throat are less prominent" (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1839, 158). Mr. Gould's description is as follows: "E. ater viridi splendens; rectricum externarum scapis longissimis, vexillis laté spatulatis ad apicis marginem exteriorem præditis. Long. tot. (rectricibus externis exclusis), 12 unc; rostri, 14; alæ, 6; caudæ, 5; tarsi, 1." The expression "ater viridi metallicé splendens" occurs also in Mr. Gould's definition of E. grandis; and a slight cast of green is certainly discernible, more especially on the back, upon all three of the closely allied species before me, one of which (judging from the aggregate of the foregoing notices) I presume to be referrible to this Rangoonensis. Length as described, the middle caudal feather 5 inches, or but 4 inches in another specimen, and penultimate 6 inches and 43 inches; wing from bend 5 and 5 inches; and bill to gape 1 inch, that of E. cristatellus measuring 11⁄2 inch, and sometimes rather more; the crest is hardly less developed than in Pastor cristatellus, or it may be compared to that of E. remifer, but partakes more of the character of that of E. cristatellus, and the nostrils are more densely impended by recumbent plumes than in either of the two species last described. One specimen has its outermost tail-feathers prolonged 12 inches beyond the next, and the naked shaft makes one complete spiral turn, and the barbed extremity another, twirling till its upper surface is again brought upward at the tip; the other specimen has much shorter naked shafts and barbs, and the spirature is less, though still very decided. This twist of the outermost tail-feathers is common to many species of this strongly marked genus, is very perceptible in a slight degree in the common D. balicassius, and is most curiously exemplified in D. Crishna. The plumage of E. Rangoonensis resembles that of the allied species, and the specimens here described are also from Tenasserim.

In the cataloguc before cited of Dr. McClelland's Assam birds, the E. grandis is also included, with the remark, that "several specimens

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