EDO 



and those of some have been compared to that of the 

 nightingale. As the birds are not together, however, 

 it is impossible to institute a comparison, and there 

 seems to be some tendency to overrate the musical 

 powers of tropical birds. The reason of that may be 

 seen without much difficulty. The sounds uttered by 

 the tree-birds and tree-mammalia in those parts of the 

 world are in general very harsh and disagreeable. 

 The screaming of parrots, the chattering of monkeys, 

 and the howling of the larger apes, to say nothing of 

 the yelling or' beasts of prey and the hissing of 

 serpents, or the hollow roarings of crocodiles and 

 alligators, are not the sweetest voices in nature. 

 H nee, when any bird or other creature happens to 

 strike up a noise which is even tolerable, the relief 

 which it gives is music to the car ; and there is no 

 doubt that this is one of the reasons why the songs 

 of the (bongos have been reckoned so sweet. They 

 are no doubt at a considerable distance in the scale 

 from those birds which have no love-song, or cry of 

 any kind, save a cherrnp or a scream, but they are 

 not quite so far removed as to bring them among the 

 songsters, properly so called. 



They build their nests in the tops of the most lofty 

 trees. The egg?, which are usually four in number, 

 are rather large for the size of the birds, of a dull white 

 colour, with black markings. The prevailing colour 

 of the birds is black, with iridescent reflections of 

 purple, green, and other colours , but as the reflected 

 colours of birds do not come out except on near 

 inspection, they appear quite black to ordinary obser- 

 vation. The flavour of their flesh is rank, so that 

 they are of no use in an economical point of view. 

 Their black colour, their screaming, their restless 

 activity, and the offensive nature of their Mesh, have 

 procured them the name of " Devil's birds," which 

 they are designated in manv places, both by the 

 natives and bv Europeans. Vieillot gave the genus 

 the name Dicrunix, double tail, or forked tail ; but, as 

 many of them have not that character, it is inappli- 

 cable. This is one instance of the injudiciousness of 

 founding the name of a genus upon any one external 

 character ; for, if the genus is new, the probability is. 

 that the character will not be applicable to it. Nor 

 could there be, even admitting that the practice were 

 a wise one, on the whole, a more absurd perversion 

 of it, than to name a genus from the trivial circum- 

 stance of having a forked tail, which is common to 

 so many birds. Other authors have classed the birds 

 variously ; some of them have been named, and even 

 described as crows ; others as rollers ; others as 

 cuckoos ; and others again as shrikes ; the last of 

 which is near the truth, but even it is not correct, 

 and the birds are really a distinct, and not a badly 

 marked genus, both in their appearance and their 

 habits. The generic name edot'ms, which Cuvier has 

 given them, does not express much certainly, but still 

 it leads to no mistake, and that is a matter of some 

 consequence. It is perhaps not possible to find 

 descriptive names for one-tenth of the genera of 

 birds, or indeed of any other class of animals ; and 

 this being the case, the next best thing to be done is 

 to give the genera names which shall be their own, 

 and which shall not convey any erroneous meaning. 

 We shall now mention a few of the species, remark- 

 ing, at the same time, that, as the birds are exceed- 

 ingly numerous, especially in the eastern Archipelago, 

 the list cannot be expected to be complete. 



EDOLIUS. PUELLUS. This species was described as 



LI US. 387 



a roller both by Latham and Temminck. It is a 

 native of Java, and most likely of the other islands 

 of the same group. It is about eight inches long : 

 the male has the crown of the head, the neck, the 

 scapulars, the back, and the upper tail-coverts of a 

 very intense and brilliant azure blue ; and the rest of 

 the plumage is deep velvet black, with the bases of all 

 the feathers brown. The bill and the feet are also 

 black ; the tail is rounded. The female has the ground 

 colour of the plumage on the upper part blackish 

 brown, with the tips of the feathers slate-grey, more 

 or less intense, according to the age and condition of 

 the bird. There arc also blue spots on the back of 

 the neck and various other places, and the middle of 

 the back, the rump, and the belly, are often entirely 

 blue, but never of so brilliant a tint as the same colour 

 is on the male. 



EDOLIUS BALICASSIUS. This species was named 

 and described by Latham as a crow. Like the former, 

 it is a native of Java : its length is about ten inches. 

 The bill and feet are black, and the plumage also is 

 black, with green reflections, which are verv rich and 

 brilliant on the upper part. The tail of this species 

 is forked. The colour of the female differs from that 

 of the male only in the black being less pure and 

 intense, and the reflections less brilliant. This species 

 is much on the wing and very noisy, while the depth 

 of its black colour renders it very conspicuous. On 

 these accounts it is one of those which are pre-omi- 

 nently styled devil's birds. We believe the Malays 

 have some superstition about it, and reckon the 

 detention, and especially the killing of it, a certain 

 means of getting bad luck. 



EDOLIUS ^ENEUS. This species has been obtained 

 from the continent of India, and there are some 

 doubts whether it may not be the female of another 

 species, as all the specimens which have come to 

 Europe have been females. The bri liant refactions 

 on the female of this species form rather an exception 

 to the general character. The whole upper plumage 

 is black with very brilliant and iridescent reflections 

 of bronze green. The under part, the bill, and the 

 feet are dull black. 



EDOLIUS CffiRULESCENs. This is also an Indian 

 species, by no means rare in many parts of the 

 country. It has been long known to naturalists, and 

 was described by Edwards under the name of the 

 hook-tailed Indian butcher-bird. The length is about 

 seven inches : the bill and feet are brown. The 

 whole of the body-feathers on the upper part are deep 

 black, with reflections of blue and copper-colour 5 

 the under part is black, passing into whitish on the 

 belly. The wings and their coverts are brownish 

 black, with a white spot on each of the first and 

 second quills. 



EDOLIUS PLATCRUS. This species is from the 

 eastern islands, though it h is been described as an 

 African bird. It i? the Malabar butcher-bird of some 

 writers, and the paradise cuckoo of others. These 

 names are, of course, wrong, but from the redundance 

 of them it is probable that the bird is generally dis- 

 tributed over the south east of Asia. The length, 

 taken from the point of the bill to the extremity of 

 the second feather of the tail, is about eleven inches. 

 The bill and feet are black. The general plumage is 

 black, with iridescent reflections of green, the colour 

 being less intense and the reflections less brilliant on 

 the under side than on the upper. The bristly feathers 

 at the base of the bill arc very long and retroflected 

 B B2 



