XXIII 

 A MELODIOUS DRONGO 



OUR friend the king crow (Dicrurus ater) is 

 so abundant throughout India, and pos- 

 sesses to so great a degree the faculty of 

 arresting the attention, that we are apt 

 to overlook his less numerous relatives. In Ceylon it 

 is otherwise. Dicrurus ater occurs in that fair isle, 

 but only in certain parts thereof, and is not so abundant 

 as his cousin, the white- vented drongo {Dicrurus leuco- 

 pygialis). The former has, therefore, to play second 

 fiddle in Ceylon, where he is usually known to Euro- 

 peans as the black fly-catcher. The white-vented 

 drongo is their king crow — the bird that lords over the 

 corvi. 



The drongos constitute a well-defined family. When 

 you know one member you can scarcely fail to recognise 

 the others. They fall into two great classes, the fancy 

 and the plain, the dandies and those that dress quietly. 

 The bhimraj, or larger racket-tailed drongo (Dissemurus 

 paradiseus), is the most perfect example of the fancy 

 or ornamental class. His head is set off by a crest, 

 but his speciality is the pair of outer tail feathers, 

 which attain a length of nearly two feet. 



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