312 DICBUK1D2E. 



326. Dicrurus annectens. The Crow-billed Drongo 



Buchanga annectans, Hodys. 2nd. Rev. \, p. 326 (1837). 



Edolius affinis, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xi, p. 174 (1842). 



Dicrurus balicassius (Linn.}, Blyth, Cat p. 202 ; Horsf. 8f M. Cat. i, 



p. 152 ; Jerd. B. 1. i, p. 430 ; Hume, S. F. ii, p. 209. 

 Dicrurus annectens (Hodge.}, Blyth fy Wald. Birds Burm. p. 131 ; 



Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iii, p. 231 ; Tweedd. Ibis, 1878, p. 72; Hume 



$ Dav. S. F. vi, pp. 213, 509 ; Hume, Cat. no. 279 ; Oates, S. F. 



x, p. 201 ; id. B. B. i, p. 217. 



Coloration. The whole plumage black glossed with steel-blue, 

 except on the lores, ear-coverts, the inner webs of the quills, axil- 

 laries, and under wing-coverts. 



Birds not quite adult have the axillaries and under wing-coverts 

 tipped with white, and birds still younger have the under tail- 

 coverts also tipped with white. 



Young birds of the year have the whole lower plumage from the 

 breast to the tail barred with white. 



The change from the young to the adult plumage consists en- 

 tirely in the gradual disappearance of the white marks on the 

 lower plumage ; but there is a tendency to retain these marks in 

 some degree even in old age ; and birds entirely black are com- 

 paratively seldom met with. 



Bill and legs black ; iris brown (Jerdon). 



Length about 10*5 tail up to 5*5 ; wing 5'6 ; tarsus '8 ; bill 

 from gape 1/2. 



Distribution. The lower levels of Nepal and Sikhirn, extending 

 into the plains of Oudh ; thence along the base of the Himalayas 

 to Dibrugarh in Assam. From this Province the species apparently 

 extends through Burma and the Malay peninsula to Singapore and 

 Sumatra ; but it has only been recorded with certainty from Lower 

 Pegu, the southern portion of Tenasserim, and Malacca. It is 

 found in Cochin China. 



This species appears to be, in some measure, migratory ; but its 

 movements are difficult to trace. I have se?en birds killed in Oudh 

 from December to February ; at Dibrugarh in June ; in Lower 

 Pegu in October ; in Tenasserim from November to May ; and at 

 Malacca from August to April. I have seen D. annectens in Pegu 

 only in October. 



Habits, fyc. From what I observed of this bird in Pegu, its habits 

 do not differ in any respect from those of the next. Nothing is 

 know ? n of its nidification. 



327. Dicrurus ater. The Black Drongo. 



Muscicapa atra, Hermann, Obs. Zool. p. 208 (1804). 



Dicrurus inacrocercus, Vieitt. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. ix, p. 588 



(1817); Blyth, Cat. p. 202; Jerd. B. I. i, p. 427 ; MacMaster, 



J. A.S.B.xl,yt. ii, p. 210. 



