I920.] Dicrnridse in the British Museum. 445 



6. Dicrurus atripennis. 



Dicrurus atripennis Swains. Jiirds West Africa, i. 1837, 

 p. 256 — Type locality : Sierra Leone. 



Chief characters. Upper parts and breast highly glossed 

 Avith steel-bine (more greeu than bine). Size rather large. 

 AVings 106-122 mm., average of twenty-three skins 

 113'1 mm.; tail almost square. 



Range. Sierra Leone (typical), Gold Coast, Northern 

 Nigeria, Cameroon, Gaboon, Belgian Congo. 



Number of skins in the British Museum : 26 (typical 

 locality not represented). 



7. Dicrurus sharpei, 



Dicrurus sharpei Oustalet, N. Arch. Mus. Paris, 1879, 

 p. 97 — Typs locality: Gaboon. 



Chief characters. Upper jjarts blue, not highly glossed, 

 the blue deeper and duller than in atripennis. Smaller. 

 Wings 101-112 mm., average of eighteen skins 106*5 mm.; 

 tail square and shorter than in atripennis. 



Range. Senegal, Portuguese Guinea, Gold Coast, Nigeria, 

 Cameroon, Gaboon (typical), Belgian Congo, N. Angola. 



Number of shins in tlie British Museum : 18. 



8. Dicrurus ludwigi. 



Edolius ludwigi Smith, S. Afr. Quart. Journ. 1834, p. 144 

 — Tyj)e locality : Port Natal. 



Chief characters. Entire upper and under parts glossed 

 Aviih greyish-green. Size small : wings 94-107 mm., 

 average of twenty-two skins with a wing-measurement of 

 101*2 mm. Quill-lining dark ; tail distinctly forked. It is 

 distinguished from D. atripennis by its shorter, narrower 

 bill and by the more forked tail, and by liaving the outer 

 tail-feathers more angular. 



Range. Natal (typical), Zululand, Portuguese East Africa, 

 Rhodesia, Nyasaland, the late German East Africa, Belgian 

 Congo. 



Number of s/iins in t/ie British Museum : 23. 



