528 



PASSERIFORMES 



CHAP. 



{Dicranostre2Jtus). Chihia hracteata is the only species in Australia, 

 while Buchanga leucogenys is said to reach Japan ; B. loaldeni is 

 peculiar to Mayotte, and Edolius forjicatus 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 

 ^ and more or less curved, with a 



hooked tip, a notched maxilla, and 

 fairly strong rictal bristles much 

 developed in Chaetorhynchiis. The 



A^^^^SIS^'^^IH^IHBSHHISI^ ^^^^'^^'^^'"'^ '^^^ 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. Dissemurus 

 paradiseus. x |. 



rus, Chihia, and Chactorlvyn- 

 chus. In Chihia the two outer 

 feathers are slightly elongated 

 and turned up, in Dissemuro'ides 

 they are produced and recurved 

 at the tip, in Dicranostreptus they 

 are extraordinarily lengthened 

 and turned to face one 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. pectoralis, and scanty plumes in C. himaensis ; Disse- 

 muro'ides having the one or the other. Various species exhibit a 

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

 feathers of the former are scaly-looking in Chactorhy7ichus. 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 



