DICRURID^. 127 



The iris is reddish orange, the legs are brownish black, 

 and the bill is black. 



[The Damara race of Dicrurus musicus appears to be identical 

 with that which occurs in Natal, and slightly smaller than that 

 which inhabits the Cape Colony, from which, however, it does 

 not differ except in its smaller size and inferior song, which 

 latter distinction can, of course, only be appreciated by a 

 naturalist who, like Mr. Andersson, had listened to the notes of 

 both races in a state of nature. 



I am indebted to the kindness of Viscount Walden, who has 

 paid much attention to this group, for the following remarks, 

 and for permission here to quote them : " The Damara 

 Dicrurus is a puzzler : if we take the Cape Dicrurus musicus 

 as our standard, we find that throughout the whole extent 

 of Africa it preserves representative forms; besides these, 

 and coexisting with them, are to be found totally different 

 species, such as D. Ludwiyi, atripenniSj coracinus, modestus, &c. 

 Now the utmost that can be said about the Damara-Land 

 Dicrurus is that it is a representative form of D. musicus, just 

 as D. divaricatus, Licht. (= canipennis, Swains.), is the Sene- 

 gambian representative. The Damara bird is smaller than 

 that of the Cape ; the bill in the Cape bird is longer, and the tail 

 more deeply forked, i. e. the outer tail-feathers are longer than 

 in the Damara bird ; but I do not think that much reliance can 

 be placed on any of these characters ; all that one may assert 

 for certain is that the Damara bird is not so large as that of the 

 Cape, and that it more nearly approaches in size that of the 

 Gambia, namely D. divaricatus, Licht. I cannot detect the 

 least difference between an example from Natal and those from 

 Damara Land ; the Natal specimen is smaller than the Cape D. 

 musicus" The specimens which I have compared from the 

 Cape and from Damara Land quite confirm Lord Walden's 

 observations, except as to the tail in the Cape race being more 

 deeply forked than in birds from Damara Land, a distinction 

 which is barely, if at all, perceptible in the examples which I 

 have examined. The length of the wing from the carpal joint 

 to the tip of the primaries in the Cape race exceeds the cor- 



