NOVITATES ZOOLOGIOAE XXV. 19IS. 295 



(7) Dicrurus leucophaeus stevensi, subsp. nov. 



Type: ? 25. iv. 1900, Darjeeling, India, C. T. Bingham Coll., Tring Museum. 



Type Locality : Darjeeling. 



The largest form found to the west of the Brahmapootra, and though not 

 as large as D. I. hopwoodi it lias an even longer tail than that bird. It is also a 

 decidedly darker bird than any of the more eastern forms with less variation 

 in depth of colour. 



Between this and Southern Indian forms it is not easy to distinguish any 

 variation in colour, but in size they decrease steadily as they get farther and 

 farther south. 



Habitat. It is extremely hard to lay down any arbitrary line dividing the 

 ranges of the various subspecies east of the Brahmapootra. With all continental 

 subspecies there might be expected an area into which the adjoining subspecies 

 grade, but with this species there is so steady, if small, a decrease in size from 

 the extreme north to the extreme south of India that the task is rendered 

 unusually difficult. 



The size of the north-eastern birds and those from North-Central India 

 suffice, I tliink, to keep these chstinct from the rest, and I include in the area 

 of D. I. steveni all birds from West Central Nepal, Bhutan, Sikldm, the hills of 

 Assam north and west of the Brahmapootra and the foothills running along 

 their entire length. 



Wing average, l-tO'9 mm. (127-152) ; tail average, 152 mm. (128-175). 



I have had to give this form a new name as I can find none which apply 

 to it. Hodgson's name pyrrhops is a nomen nudum, Beavan's name ivaldeni was 

 given to a Simla bird to the west of the range occupied by steveni. Gray's 

 cinerascens is, of course, merely a misprint for Horsfield's cinemcevs which = 

 leucophaeus. 



I name tliis bird in honour of Mr. H. Stevens, whose collections of Assam 

 and Nepalese birds are mostly in the Tring Museum. 



(8) Dicrurus leucophaeus longicaudatus. 



Dicrurus longicaudattis A. Hay, Jerdon, Madr. Jovr. L. S. xiii. pt. ii. p. 121 (1845). 



Type Locality : Neilgherries. 



A smaller bird than steveni, but otherwise indistinguishable. 



Habitat. I include for the present under this name the whole of the birds 

 found in Continental India south of the area occupied bj' D. I. steveni as well 

 as those found in the N.W. Himalayas west of Nepal. 



Birds from Central India average as big as those from N.W. India, but 

 have a shorter tail of only 141 mm. as against 152 mm. As, however, I have 

 only been able to examine a comparatively small series of the former and birds 

 from South India have an average of 147 mm. for tail measui-ements, I cannot 

 consider this feature as of any real importance. Buds from South India are 

 smaller again than those from Central India, but the differences are so small 

 that I do not feel justified in dividing them on this account alone. 



Wing average, 134-1 mm. (124-145) ; tail average, 148'1 mm. (127-170). 



