408 Novelties. — Bissemuroides dicnmformis. 



vermieilated, and with a few irregular paler bare^ bounded by 

 darker lines; the bars do not extend to the tips of the feathers. 

 The toes and claws are particularly long-. 



Dissemuroides, Gen. Nor,. 



Bill resembling that of Disseinurus ; rictal bristles, feebler ; no crest ; a 

 tuft of hair like feathers on the forehead, springing from each side 

 of the base of culmen ; tail much as in Buchanga cdbirictus, Hodg., 

 and longicaudatus, Hay, but longer, and the exterior feathers more 

 than proporiionally elongated, with the tips curved over towards the 

 centre of the tail, as in Chibia liottentotta. 



Aftee, comparing the king-crows of the An damans and the 

 Cocos, allied, but quite distinct, spe3ies, with all the dicrurine 

 birds of our part of the world, I am unable to identify them 

 with any genus of the family which is represented in India and 

 its dependencies. The elongated, powerful, sharply carinated 

 bill is that of Dissemunis ; but there is no trace of a crest, the 

 exterior tail feathers are only slightly lengthened, have no portion 

 of the shaft bare, nor even of the webs narrowed ; the tail, though 

 longer, is much like that of our common king-crow ; but the 

 whole tips of the external pair are turned well over, as in Cliibia 

 hottentoUa, and even more strongly so than in that species ; be- 

 sides all this, there is the peculiar tuft of re-curved frontal bustles, 

 springing from either side of the base of the culmen, I have 

 therefore separated these two birds'^" under the above generic 

 name, and give the following species as the type : 



Dissemuroides dicruriformis, S^. Nov. 



iengff^, 13-25-14!'6; wmgf, 5'6-5"9; hill, froim grape, 1'4-1"5 ; f arsMs, 0*9-l. 



It is only in size that this species differs from its congener 

 andamanensis ; but that difference is so great, so invariable, and 

 so apparent to the eye even in the live bird, that I cannot avoid 

 separating the birds from great Cocos and Table Island, from 

 those of the Andaman group proper. It must not be supposed 

 that I have assumed this difference of size from insufficient evi- 

 dence. We shot a very large number of both species, and I 

 have now before me nineteen of the present species, and thirty- 



* D. lo^horinus Vieill would also apparently be included in this genus. 



