574 ON THE DICEUEID.E AND THEIR AEBANGEMENT [1878. 



Dastcrotapha *. 

 Base of maxilla densely clothed vrith short feathers, space behind the eye naked. Bill about 

 the length of head, and formed as in Miscornis. Wing lengthened, longer than tail, first primary 

 half the length of the second, which is a fifth shorter than the third, third a little shorter than 

 the fourth, which is equal to fifth and sixth. Tail moderate and square. Tarsus strong ; hallux 

 with claw stout and long ; digits short, slender ; outer a little shorter than inner. 



Dastceotapha speciosa, sp. nov. (Plate IX. in orig.) 



Head crested ; forehead with dense short plumes covering the base of the maxilla ; cii'cle 

 round the eye, whole space before the eye, tuft on the side of the base of mandible, chin and 

 P.Z.S.1878, uppermost part of throat pure lemon-yellow; crown of the head black; postoccipital plumes 

 p. 115, yellow ; nape yellowish green tipped with black ; a lengthened tuft of plumes springing from 

 above the eye bright orange ; a line immediately below this tuft black ; a tuft of stiff decom- 

 posed feathers springing from below the eye and extending over the ears white or greyish white ; 

 an u-regular band across the throat black; dorsal feathers grey with light olive-green tips and 

 white shafts ; uropygium yellowish green ; upper tail-coverts the same, tinged with rufous ; lower 

 throat and upper breast bright yellow, most of the feathers with black terminal di'ops ; lower 

 breast and rest of under plumage duller yellow tinged with green on the flanks ; quills brown 

 margined with yellowish olive-green, inner margin of quills pale yellow ; wing-coverts dull olive- 

 green, carpal edge and wing-lining yellow ; tail dull rufous. 



Wing 2-62, tail 2-37, tarsus 0-87, culmen 0-75. 



Hah. Valencia, island of Negros, s , August. Iris crimson ; bill orange-yellow. (Everett.) 



The hereditary affinity of this new form with Macronus striaticejjs and Mixornis capitalis is 

 betrayed by the colouring and markings of the dorsal plumage. 



Ibis, 1878, yotes on the Dicrmidse, and on their ^ Arrangement in the Catalogue of the Collection of the 

 P- ^^- British Museum \. By Akthue, Marquis of Tweeddale. [From ' The Ibis,' January 1878.] 



The Dicruridse constitute a natural, self-contained, sharply defined family, which has its members 

 ranging throughout the Ethiopian and Indian regions and the Austro-Papuan, including the 

 Moluccas. One, and only one, appears to be migratory, Buchanga leiicogenys, which reaches 

 Japan in the summer months. As indicated by the form of the beak, the presence of strong 

 rictal bristles, the short tarsus, short toes, and ankylosed first phalanges of the outer and middle 

 toes, the Bicniri are Muscicapine in their affinities ; and this relationship is unmistakably exhibited 

 in their habits. All the species of which the ways have been recorded, have the habit of 

 descending from their perches to catch insects on the wing, and then immediately returning to 



* laavs, villosus, et Kporaipoi, tempora capitis. 



t Catalogue of the Passeriformcs in the Collection of the British Museum. — ColiomorpTue. Bj' K. Bowdler Sharpe. 

 (1877.) 



