528 



PASSERIFORMES 



{Dicranostreptus). Chibia hracteata is the only species in Australia, 

 while Bitchanga leucogenys is said to reach Japan ; B. waldeni is 

 peculiar to Mayotte, and Edolias forficatus to Madagascar and 

 Joanna Island. Both sexes are typically black, with a metallic 

 gloss of blue, purple, or green, though a few are greyer or browner, 

 or have a little white below. The variable bill is usually large 

 j and more or less curved, with a 



\ f hooked tip, a notched maxilla, and 



fairly strong rictal bristles — nuich 

 developed in ChactorliyncJius. The 

 ^\\M^^SB^K^k'^BSB^^^^k^ metatarsi are short, the toes small, 



the wings long. The tail 



has only ten rectrices, and 



is generally very deeply 



forked, though 



less so in Dicru- 



FiG. 117. — Drongo. Bissemunis 

 pm-adiseus. x |. 



Tus, Chihia, and CJiaeiorhyn- 



clius. In Chihia the two outer 



feathers are slightly elongated 



and turned up, in Disseinuro'ides 



they are produced and recurved 



at the tip, in Bicrav.ostreptns they 



are extraordinarily lengthened 



and turned to face ooe another. 



In Bhringa and Dissemurus the 



long bare shafts terminate in racquets, and have a twist that brings 



the upper side inwards in the former, and one in the racquet itself 



in the latter. On the forehead a large, erect tuft occurs in Edolius, 



a still more extensive recurved crest in Dissemurus, a bunch of 



long, silky hairs in Chihia hottentotta. A few similar hairs are 



found in C. 'pcctoralis, and scanty plumes in C. himaensis ; Dissc- 



muroides having the one or the other. Various species exliibit a 



tendency to lanceolate hackles on the head and neck, while the 



feathers of the former are scaly-looking in Chaetorhynclius. The 



bill and feet are black ; the eyes red, white, or brown. 



These wary, active birds frequent gardens, open country, and 

 forests up to at least eight thousand feet, more usually in pairs 



