RANGOON DISTRICT OF THE IRRAWADDY DELTA. 313 
[A large number of specimens, procured by Dr. Armstrong, 
are what I consider to be true albiricta. In a very fine 
specimen of this species from Ajmere, (I choose a central 
locality), in which the white rictal spot is very nearly the 
tenth of an inch in diameter, a male, the wing measures 5:92, 
and the tail from vent, it being a particularly fine specimen, 
6:25. These Rangoon specimens agree precisely with this 
Ajmere specimen in size and shape of bill, in color, and [ 
may also say in size, as in some males the wings range up to 
5°9, and the tails also up to 59. As regards the rictal spot, 
none have this so strongly marked as in the Ajmere example, 
but some have it clearly marked, while in others it is barely 
discernible. Doctor Jerdon (bis, 1872, p. 119) separates 
the Indian King-crow without a rictal spot under Swinhoe’s 
name of cathecus, but I must absolutely dispute the value of 
the rictal spot as a specific characteristic of Indian birds as 
all over the country, at least, wherever, I have been, birds with 
and without the rictal spot equally occur. As to the smaller 
Southern race D. minor, Blyth, from Ceylon, and and B. aéra, 
Hermann, from Tranquebar, the difference of size may be 
considered to warrant specific separation, but certainly D. 
longus and D. cathwcus of India, apud Jerdon, are not in my 
opinion separable from D. albirictus.—A. O. H.] 
280 A.—Buchanga intermedia, Blyth.—(Vide S. F., 
111, 97.) 
The ashy Drongos collected from the neighbourhoods of Ran- 
goon and Syriam, as well as those from the district intervening 
between Elephant Point aud China-Ba-keer, may, from their 
relative dimensions, be arbitrarily divided into two quasi species. 
The larger birds are, probably, referable to the B. pyrrhops of 
Hodgson, although their dimensions are somewhat less those given 
by Mr. Grote for that species; while the smaller variety may, 
I think, with equal probability be referred to the B. intermedia 
of Blyth. The following are the dimensions recorded in the 
flesh of four specimens of intermedia :— 
Outer tail | Middle tail Bill from 
Sex. | Length. | Expanse | Wing. feathers. feathers. | Tarsus. gape. 
1} od 10 15°5 49 4:8 3:8 ‘76 1:05 
2 7 10°3 16 51 5-2 3°9 “75 1:12 
3 " 10°5 16°3 53 55 3°9 72 1:07 
4 53 10°4 16 62 56 4 “78 11 
In all four specimens the irides were lake red; the bill, legs, 
feet, and claws, jetty black. 
R 2 
