NOVITATEB ZOOLOOICAE XXVT. 1919. 131 



1817, had a number of species. Of these the first has afterwards been desig- 

 nated as the type. This first species is the Corvus balicassius of Linnaeus, 1766 ! 

 This balicassius is solely based on Brisson, who described and figured a Drongo 

 with a forked tail, which he supposed to have come from the Philippines. This 

 must have been an error, because the Philippine Drongo just happens to difler 

 from the other species by not having a forked tail, the central pair of rectrices 

 being almost as long as the others, so that no fork is visible at all. In this re- 

 spect it is only almost equalled by the otherwise rather different D. longirostris 

 of the Solomon Islands. iMorever, the common Philippine Drongo differ in 

 having the whole upperside metallic glossy, in which D. mirabilis of Negros 

 agrees with it, which, however, besides its white abdomen has already a dis- 

 tinctly, though not very deeply forked tail ! Between this and the deep forks 

 of the so-called Buchanga there is a complete gradation, moreover the name 

 Dicrurus belongs, as I have shown, to a fork -tailed Drongo 1 I therefore agree 

 with Gates (who was generally a great genus splitter !)and others, that Buchanga 

 must be united with Dicrurus. But to return to the so-called balicassius. It 

 is evident that this name, based on a Drongo with a deeply forked tail (see 

 descriptions and figures of BrLsson — ^vol. ii. pi. ii. fig. 1 — and Daubenton's pi. enl. 

 603) cannot be used for the species which differs from nearly all the others by 

 not having a forked tail. Therefore the Manila Drongo must henceforth be 

 called Dicrurus viridescens (Gould) : Edolius viridescens Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 London, 1836, p. 6, described from a Philippine skin in the Eyton collection, 

 examined by Viscount Walden (cf. Trans. Zool. Soc. London, iv. p. 180).) 



46. Buchanga periophthalmica Salvad. = Dicrurus stigmatops periophthalmica. 



Buchanga periophthalmica Salvadori, Ann. Mue. Civ. Oenova, xxxiv. p. 594 (1894 — ^Island of Si- 

 Oban in the Mentawei group, west of Sumatra). 



Cotype : ? ad., Si-Oban, 27. iv. 1894. No. e of Salvadori's list. I.e. E. 

 Modigliani leg. No. 86. 



This specimen is marked " Typus " by the author, but he marked all his 

 ten specimens " tipi della specie." One, therefore, is as good a type as the 

 others, all being, in fact, " cotypes," according to Oldfield Thomas's now 

 generally accepted nomenclature. 



B. periophthalmica is undoubtedly a subspecies of stigmatops, which, how- 

 ever, might further be a form of cineracea. 



47. Dicruropsis viridinitens Salvad. = Dicrurus (bracteatus) viridinitens. 



Dicruropsis viridinitens Salvsidori, Ann, Mus. Civ. Genova, xxxiv. p. 593 (1894 — Si-Oban, Mentawei 

 group). 



Cotype : <J ad., Si-Oban, 28. iv. 1894. Dr. E. ModigUani leg. No. 91. 

 Specimen b of Salvadori's list. (See note under No. 46.) 



I have very little doubt that viridinitens, suluensis, guillemardi, meeki, 

 dejectus, manumeten, buruensis, and many others must be looked upon as sub- 

 species of bracteatus. In some of these forms long bristles stand on the fore- 

 head, but not always, probably in adult males, and possibly at certain seasons 

 only, others have never any. D. densus with its two subspecies seems to form 

 another species. (Cf. Novitates Zoologicae, 1902, p. 440.) 



