CHAPTER III. 



PASSERINE BIRDS continued. 

 SHRIKES, MYNAHS, ORIOLES, &c. 



THE DRONGOS. 



THIS small family stand very much by themselves in 

 most classifications, but there can be little doubt that 

 they are simply peculiar-looking Shrikes, and I put them 

 here simply out of deference to the order followed in the 

 Fauna of British India bird volumes, where they are given 

 family rank as usual. Certainly no one can mistake a 

 Drongo for any other Shrike or small bird of any kind, the 

 usually jet-black plumage and long-forked tail making 

 it conspicuous at once. The bill is strong and rather like 

 a Crow's on a small scale, and the legs and feet short but 

 powerful and sharply clawed. The wings are of medium 

 length, and the birds though they cannot rival Swallows 

 and such-like birds in the air, are nevertheless very active 

 and graceful flyers, and remarkably clever at aerial evolu- 

 tions. They feed on insects, and make sallies from a fixed 

 perch, returning to it on completing their capture. If 

 the prey is too big to be swallowed whole, they hold it in 

 one foot, while tearing it into pieces, like many othei 

 Shrikes. Both male and female have the same plumage, 

 and the young merely differ in being spotted with 

 white below. 



