DROM^OGNA TH^—DRONGO 



167 



which it was destroyed for the sake of its rich yellow feathers, 

 used in former days to decorate the state robes of the chiefs.^ 

 Specimens were brought to England by the companions of Cook on 

 his last voyage, when the Sandwich Islands were discovered, and 

 one of them exists in the Museum of Vienna, while other examples 

 are to be seen in Honolulu, Paris, Leyden, and Cambridge ; but 

 probably not more than half a dozen have been preserved. Nearly 

 allied to this species is the beautiful Scarlet Creeper of Latham, 

 Vestiaria coccinea, which also provided feathers for the 

 adornment of the natives, but has escaped the fate of its ^xJ^^^^^P 

 relative, beina: still one of the most characteristic birds '^ ^=^^ 

 of the islands ; and to the same Family belong several , . ^^^ esjiaria. 



' -I • T TT ■ j7 • 1 • (After Swamson.) 



other genera, among which Menngnatlms, with its 

 upper mandible in some species monstrously prolonged beyond the 

 lower, is very remarkable (see Wilson and Evans, Birds of the Sand- 

 tvich Islands). 



DROM^OGXATH^, the first Suborder of Carinntx, according 

 to Prof. Huxley's taxonomy {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, pp. 425, 456), 

 consisting of the Family Tinamida} (TiNAMOu), or Order Crypturi as 

 some would have it. These birds have a completely Struthious 

 palate, with a very broad vomer meeting in front with the broad 

 maxillo -palatal plates as in Drorim'us (Emeu), while, behind, it 

 receives the posterior extremities of the palatals and the anterior 

 ends of the pterygoids, which thus have a Eatite conformation. 



DRONGO, a native name of the Edolius forficains of Madagascar 

 which has been not only adopted into various European languages, 

 but also used generally for the allied species, several of which are 

 referred to distinct genera, as Bhringa, ChajMa, Chibia, Dicrurus, 

 Dissemurus, Melanornis, and so forth, and inhabit Africa, Asia, the 



Eastern Archipelago, and 

 Australia. The Drongos, 

 known as " King-Crows " 

 to Anglo - Indians, are 

 commonly placed as a 



Dicrurus. (After Swainson.) subfamily among the 



Laniidm (Shrike) ; but 

 are fully entitled, so far as the groups of Passeres are concerned, to 

 rank as a Family, Dkniridiv. Their colour when adult is almost 



^ Its native name seems to have been JIamo, which was thence applied to 

 the gorgeous mantles beset with its golden feathers. As the species became rare, 

 recourse was had for this purpose to the yellow feathers of a very different bird, 

 the 0-0, the Aerulocercus nohilis of modern ornithologists, belonging, as Dr. 

 Gadow has shewn, to the wholly-distinct Family Mcli-pluvgidaa (Honey-sitcker). 

 Cf. Wilson and Evans, op. cit. 



