1878.] IN THE BEITISH-MUSEUM CATALOGUE. 575 



the same or some adjoining place of rest. Some species, such as members of the genera Bhringa, 



Chaptia, Bissemtirus, and several of the genus BiicJumga, never descend to the ground, but 



capture their prey entirely on the wing. Edolius forficatus, according to Pollen (' Faune de 



Madagascar'), has similar habits. Those species that do descend to the ground, such as Buclianga 



atra, do so to seize their food, and only remain for a short time. This last-named species has the 



useful habit, vyhere there are extensive plains of long dry grasses without suitable trees or bushes, 



of sitting on the backs of antelopes, sheep, cattle, &c., using them as beaters, and catching on 



the wing the insects disturbed by the feet of the grazing animals. The feet in all the Dicnori 



are essentially constructed for grasping, by which, together with the lengthened tail, walking 



is rendered difficult, if not altogether impossible. During a seven years' residence in India, I 



never once observed the common King-Crow [Buclianga atra) move along the ground ; and it is 



the most widely spread and least specialized of all the Asiatic species. The flight of all is short, 



but rapid while it lasts. Most writers, and certainly all those who have observed members of Il>is, 1878, 



this family in a wild state, must agree with Jerdon in classing the Dicruridce between the Shrikes 



and the Flycatchers ; and I venture the opinion that it will require a more comprehensive and 



stronger character than that of the relative position of the nares and the chin-angle before 



ornithologists will concur in associating them with the Crows and the Orioles. 



It is not proposed in the following notes to debate whether the Coliomorphae of Mr. Sharpe 

 constitute a natural or an unnatural and highly artificial group. Their object is rather to notice 

 a few errors which it seems desirable in the interest of science to correct before they pass into 

 general circulation, and before they become adopted, as they naturally will be, by authors 

 influenced by the high authority of the work in which they appear. This volume of the 

 Catalogue of Birds, as well as the two it follows, deserves our acknowledgment ; and whether we 

 approve or disapprove of the classificatory system adopted, we cannot withhold the expression of 

 our satisfaction at the diligence it discloses. If there are in it important omissions, occasional 

 errors, and evidences of a desire to create new species on grounds less valid than those considered 

 by the author insufficient to support the species of others, it is certainly more owing to lack of 

 leisure than to a disinclination to labour. The systematic arrangement of the species by 

 Mr. Sharpe seems in some cases artificial, and not always to be unlocked by the key he supplies 

 for the genera. There is also a certain inconsistency displayed in the discrimination of the 

 species ; but it must be acknowledged that some of these are exceedingly difficult to make out. 



The prevailing colour of the Dicruridse is black — the only character they have in common 

 with the Crows. In some all the plumage is burnished with metallic reflections, in others partly 

 so. A few wear an ashy-coloured dress, with more or less of a silky gloss ; and in four of the 

 species pure white enters into the mature coloration. Specific difierences are therefore not easily 

 to be established by slight variations in colour ; and structure becomes the most available guide. 

 The nasal and frontal plumes and the rectrices are the parts which exhibit the greatest tendency rbis, 1878, 

 to specific development or variation; and in some, such as in the species falling under Disseniurus, ^' ' 

 the structure of jthe outer pair of rectrices is very unstable, the tendency being to revert back to 

 the fully webbed feathers. I have met with examples of B. brachi/phorus, D. malaharicus, 

 J), platurus (ex Sumatra), and B. paradiseus with the outer pau- of rectrices flattened and fully 

 webbed throughout their length, as is always the case in B. megarhyiichus and B. lophorhinus. 



4e2 



