MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 365 



secondly the drongo moves with the party of mynas. If the grass be at all 

 luii" 1 . it is difficult to distinguish between the mynas and their companion, for 

 the tail of the latter is hidden and from a little distance the colour of both 

 species looks the same. The king-crow, however, does not walk about as the 

 mynas do ; he is the one stationary member of the little company. Hence he is 

 soon left behind : but before his beaters have moved far, he flies after them 

 and alights in the midst of them. On one occasion, I watched, for over 

 half an hour, a flock of eleven mynas and the attendant drongo. The latter 

 kept near the grasshopper-hunters the whole time, sometimes in the midst of 

 them, sometimes a little way behind, while occasionally he would fly ahead in 

 the direction in which the little flock was moving. In the course of my watch- 

 ing, the birds on two occasions took fright at something and each time flew 

 away to some distance. As soon as the mynas again settled down to feed, the 

 king-crow joined them. On one of the occasions the latter gave the alarm and 

 flew off, hurriedly followed by the mynas ; on the other the mynas took the 

 lead, followed by the drongo. It is rare to see more than one king-crow with a 

 company of mynas. The reason of this is, I believe, that the king-crow likes to 

 be " cock of the walk." Having attached himself to one party of mynas he 

 looks upon their hunting-ground as his special preserve for the time being, and 

 resents the intrusion of others of his species. 



If a second king-crow comes up, a fight ensues, and the stronger bird allows 

 the weaker no peace, constantly giving chase until the latter departs. The king- 

 crow does not appear to attach himself permanently to one flock of mynas. 

 On a large piece of ground I have seen four separate flocks of mynas each with 

 a king-crow in attendance, and the drongos sometimes change flocks just as 

 one's fox-terriers, when half way through their meal, change plates ; each 

 seems to covet his neighbour's possessions, and the exchange appears to give 

 satisfaction to both parties. 



Knowing what a little tyrant the king-crow is, I always look carefully to see 

 whether he commits robbery on the mynas. Only upon one occasion have I 

 found him guilty of this offence, and the circumstance is, I think, sufficiently 

 remarkable to be recorded. 



I was watching some mynas feeding on the grass in the Botanical Gardens, 

 Madras, when suddenly a king-crow, which I had not observed, swooped down 

 upon one of the birds, planted his claws in its back and pecked most viciously 

 at its head. While punishing the myna the king-crow uttered his harsh note 

 of anger. The myna too made a great outcry, and wriggled away, but the 

 king-crow again attacked it from overhead. The scuffle was so violent, and 

 the movements of the birds so rapid, that it was difficult to see exactly what 

 happened. After the contest had lasted from forty seconds to a minute the 

 king-crow flew off, carrying in his beak what I at first took to be a myna's 

 feather. Fortunately the drongo settled in a tree a few yards from me. 

 I immediately turned my glasses on to him and then saw that what he had in 

 his beak was a wriggling worm. This had been the bone of contention. The 



