402 AVIFAUNA OF CHOTA NAGFUB. 



In details of coloration I must profess my inability to see any 

 difference between it and one of my Sirguja specimens. The 

 relative proportions of black and red on the central tail feathers 

 are identical. 



In this respect the Sirguja specimens vary much. One has 

 the whole outer web red, another only a partial edging on the 

 centre of the outer web. 



98.— Pericroeotus peregriims, Lin. (276.) 



The Small Minivet is tolerably common throughout Chota 

 Nagpur. In Sirguja and Lohardugga it is particularly abun- 

 dant. It is found both in jungle and in mango groves. 

 Parties of from a dozen to twenty are commonly met with. 



99— Buchanga albirictus, Sodgs. (278.) 



The Common Drongo Shrike or King Crow is very abundant 

 throughout Chota Nagpur. Dr. Jerdon seems to doubt that 

 the King Crow actually strikes the birds which it appears to 

 attack ; on one occasion, however, I saw one actually carried on 

 the back of a large Wood Owl (Ascalaphia bengalensis) which 

 flew out of a tree where it was being tormented by these birds 

 and Pies (Dendrocitta rufa.) 



In illustration of the somewhat miscellaneous character of 

 the food of these birds, I may mention that I remember one 

 day in Calcutta opening a verandah chick (curtain) which had 

 not been in use for some time, so disturbing a colony of bats that 

 had made the inside coils their home ; out they flew into the day- 

 light, when they were immediately seen and hawked up by 

 some King Crows who took them to neighbouring trees where 

 they quietly devoured them. 



It may possibly be for the purpose of picking up an odd bat 

 that they are generally so late in going to roost. Termites are, 

 however I believe, the chief attraction, and indeed it is doubtful 

 whether they could capture a bat not dazed by sunlight. 



Late as they are in going to roost, they are generally the 

 first birds to be on the move in the morning. I have frequently 

 heard them calling to one another long before dawn, when I 

 have been travelling in the hot weather. 



I rather think that I have seen in Manbhum specimens of 

 B. longicaudatus, but the only locality where I have actually 

 obtained that species in Bengal is in the Kajmehal hills. 

 I have seen it in the cold weather on one occasion in 

 C lcutta. 



