DICRUKIN^. 425 



Bill and legs black ; irides brownish yellow. Length about Gh 

 inches ; wing 2y'^ ; tail Sf'y ; bill at front j\j ; tarsus ^ inch. 



I have found this Minivet extensively spread throughout India, 

 but everywhere rare. I first procured it at Ajunteh, near Jalna ; I 

 afterwards saw it near Hydrabad ; again near Segoor at the foot 

 of the Neilgherries, and since in Bundelkund. Latham, too, de- 

 scribes it as the ' Cawnpore Flycatcher,' so that it probably extends 

 into the North-western Provinces, through the jungles of Gwalior ; 

 and since the above was written, Colonel Tytler informs me that it 

 is common about Delhi. It frequents low and bushy jungles, also 

 thin tree jungle, groves, gardens, and hedge-rows, lives in small 

 flocks, and feeds on various small insects. 



I have lately discovered a second species of this particular sub- 

 group in Upper Burmah, very similar, but the male with a white 

 forehead, P. albifrons, nobis. 



It appears to me, also, that some of the Oceanic Flycatchers, 

 classed under Monacha and Drymophila, approach very closely 

 to some of the Fericrocoti, and perhaps should be placed in this 

 sub-family. Monarcha trivirgata has much the aspect and even 

 the colouring of P. jyeregrinus. 



Sub-fam. DiCRURiN^, Drongo Shrikes. 



Bill rather large, wide at the base, thick, more or less curved and 

 keeled at the culmen, and notched at the tip ; numerous moderately- 

 strong rictal bristles; nostrils basal, rounded, concealed by short 

 plumes; wings lengthened ; 4th and 5th quills usually the longest; 

 legs short ; feet small ; tail usually long, forked ; the outer feathers 

 occasionally much lengthened, of ten feathers only. 



The family of Drongo Shrikes comprises a small number of birds 

 found in Africa, India, and Malayana, and extending in small num- 

 bers to Australia and the neighbouring islands. They have al- 

 most always black plumage, and longish forked tails of only ten 

 feathers, being one of the very few groups of the singing birds in 

 which these are fewer than the normal number, twelve. The bi^ 

 varies much, being short and depressed in some, lengthened and 

 curved in others. They are birds capable of strong, rapid, and 

 vigorous, but not of sustained, flight ; and they feed almost entirely 



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