80 The Marquis of Tweeddale on the 



The character is clearly only specific, and the generic title 

 Dicranostreptus should be merged under Dissemurus. This bird 

 is the D. intermedius, Lesson (Tr. d'Orn. p. 380^ ; cf. Lesson, 

 Compl. BuiFon, viii. p. 439, note 5 (1837)), a title altogether 

 omitted by Mr. Sharpe. Both names were published in 1830 ; 

 but that of the discoverer of the species should rightly pre- 

 vail. Mr. Sharpe includes the Ke Islands, on Dr. 0. Finsch's 

 authority, within its range. But that author so attributed it 

 (Neu-Guinea, p. 171) on the authority of a specimen stated 

 by Mr. Gray to have been obtained in the Ke Islands by Mr. 

 Wallace (P. Z. S. 1861, p. 435) ; and there is every reason to 

 believe that the title as it stands in Mr. Gray's " List of the 

 new Birds collected by Mr. Wallace " [I. c.) is a misprint for 

 D. megalornis, a real inhabitant of Ke. Mr. Sharpe omits to 

 include the Solomon Islands, from which area it has been 

 recorded by Mr. Sclater (P.Z. S. 1869, pp. 119, 124). 



Bhringa remifer. — This is the sole representative of the 

 genus, and is one of the many Javan species which recur on the 

 continent north of the Malaccan peninsula, although not found 

 on the peninsula itself. Temminck states that it is also an in- 

 habitant of Sumatra ; but this assertion requires confirmation . 

 It is nothing but a larger species of Chapiia anea, with the 

 shafts of the outer pair of rectrices enormously developed f, 

 nude after surpassing the remaining rectrices, until the apices 

 are reached, where the shafts are equally webbed on both sides. 

 These ornamental plumes are only assumed during the breed- 

 ing-season [teste Jerdon, B.India, i. p. 435). Admitting the 

 validity of the genus, its natural position is next to Chaptia. 



Dissemurus paradiseus. — All the racket-tailed Drongos are 

 "lumped^' by Mr. Sharpe under the above specific title, 

 given by Linnaeus to a bird from Siam described by Brisson 

 from a drawing made by Poivre. It would require far more 



* It is true that (Ibis, 1877, p. 313) I referred this title to D. platurus ; 

 but it was with a note of interrogation. 



i In a Tenasserini male (mns. nostr.), while the wing and the eight 

 middle rectrices measiu'e a little over five inches, the outer pair of tail- 

 feathers measure nineteen and a half. The outside length given in the 

 Catalogue is 17 "2. 



