BIRD-NOTES 57 



cuckoo, on account of its resemblance to a bold, 

 gregarious bird, escapes the attacks of hawks and 

 other birds of prey. Drongos are quite capable of 

 looking after themselves, and will mob a hawk without 

 the slightest fear or hesitation. 



That very remarkable Passerine bird, Pityriasis 

 gymnocephala, is found in Borneo alone. Unfortu- 

 nately very little is known about its habits, and, in 

 spite of the efforts of the three men who, more than 

 any one else, have made known to science the avifauna 

 of Borneo, viz., the late Alfred Everett, the late John 

 Whitehead, and Dr. Charles Hose, the nest of this 

 species still remains undiscovered. My predecessor 

 at the Sarawak Museum, the late Edward Bartlett, 

 by a lucky accident discovered what the egg was like ; 

 he shot a female, whose oviduct contained all ready 

 to be laid a large, pale blue egg, spotted with brown ; 

 the shattered fragment is still preserved in the Sarawak 

 Museum, and is the only " document " relating to the 

 breeding habits of the bird that we possess. That 

 Pityriasis has more or less gregarious habits is shown 

 by the fact that the call of a wounded individual 

 attracts all the others that are anywhere within hear- 

 ing, and the distressed bird is soon surrounded by a 

 flock of his friends, uttering their harsh cries and 

 fluttering their wings in anger at the enemy. 



The bird, which is about the size of a Jackdaw, 

 owes both its generic and specific names to the 

 peculiar head-covering, or lack of covering, of the 

 adult. The head is bald save for a clothing of peculiar 

 yellow scurf-like scales ; so much does the head look 

 as if it was affected by a skin -disease, that the name 

 of one, Pityriasis, has been employed for the generic 



