Dicruridse and their Arrangement. 75 



which inhabits Java Horsfield's title is adopted, and that of 

 leucophdBus, Vieillot, is omitted, together with Le Vaillant's 

 plate (Ois. d^Afr, 170) and description, ou which Vieillot 

 founded his title. While there may be some grounds for 

 doubting the precise origin of Le Drongolon, there can be 

 no question about Le Drongri. Le Vaiilant could only have 

 obtained his types from Java; and even if he got them from 

 Burma, or from any other part of the area the species inhabits, 

 the validity of the title would not be affected. It is true that 

 Le Vaiilant states with much precision that his specimens 

 came from Ceylon ; but no such species inhabits that island. 

 In his account of Le Drongri a ventre blanc, 1. c. ( = -D. leuco- 

 gaster, Vieill., a description, plate, and title nowhere alluded 

 to by Mr. Sharpe), Le Vaiilant says that his type came from Ba- 

 ta^^.a, and that its upper plumage is exactly the same as that 

 of Le Drongri. His description of the upper plumage of both 

 species is given in similar terms ; and their colouring, as shown 

 by the plates (170, 171), is the same. The type oiLe Drongri 

 is, I believe, no longer extant (indeed Le Vaiilant described 

 from desiccated specimens) ; but that of Le Drongri a ventre 

 blanc was, when I visited Leyden some years ago, in perfect 

 preservation. An examination of this type specimen, and a 

 comparison of it with an authentic Javan example of D. 

 leucophaus , convinced me that the type was manufactured, 

 and made up of a specimen of Le Drongri [D. leucojphceus} 

 with the white plumage of some other bird affixed to the 

 underparts, so as to replace the bluish gi'ey lower plumage of 

 D. leucophcBus. On expressing this conviction to Professor 

 Schlegel, he most obligingly desired his taxidermist to test 

 the specimen. This having been done by means of applying 

 heat, the taxidermist was enabled to strip off the whole of the 

 white under-plumage from the chin to the crissum in one 

 piece. This, skin and all, appeared to have been taken from 

 the under surface of Coccystes jacobinns, and, after having 

 been fitted, to have been glued on to the plucked chin, tliroat, 

 breast, and abdominal skin of D. leucophceus . There can be 

 no possible doubt therefore that Vieillot^s title of leucophcEKs 

 is applicable to the Javan bird, and that Horsfield's title of 



