MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 377 
No. XI—ON A NEW SPECIES OF BHIMRAJ (DISSEMURUS), 
WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE SO-CALLED _ 
FAMILY DICRURIDA.— 
By F. Finn, B.A., F.Z.8., DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT OF THE 
InpDIaAN Museum, 
About three years ago I saw at the establishment of Mr, W. Rutledge, of 
Entally, a living specimen of a Bhimraj or Racket-tailed Drongo, which at 
once attracted my attention by its pied plumage, and I purchased it for the 
Museum, Unfortunately the bird did not long survive, being in poor 
condition when received, and its skin was transferred to the Museum collec- 
tion, Atthe time I regarded it merely as a curious variety, but, taking 
into consideration the extreme rarity of symmetrical albinism (except in the 
case of albinoid or pallid varieties), and the fact that the appearance of this 
specimen is not suggestive of ordinary albinism, but rather of specific differ- 
ence, I venture to characterize it as new, and shali name it after Major 
Alcock, I.M.S., Superintendent of the Indian Museum, in recognition of the 
kind encouragement he has always extended to my ornithological studies. 
Dissemurus alcocki, sp. nov. 
Habit and size of an ordinary example of Dissemurus paradiseus with a 
moderate crest; colour also as in that species; black glossed with steel-blue, 
‘with the following exceptions: the upper and lower wing-coverts except 
the primary-coverts, inner scapulars, axillaries, upper tail-coverts and the 
lower plumage from the breast downwards, which are white edged with 
black, and the rump and under tail-coverts, which are entirely white. There 
_ are also some white streaks on the lower breast, and a shadmg of white on 
the inner webs of the tail-feathers and innermost secondaries, and on the 
‘outer webs of the outer secondaries, The black edging of the white feathers 
is best developed on the greater wing-coverts, where it extends right round 
the tip of the feather. Soft parts asin D. paradiseus of the same age. Bill 
from gape 15 inches; wing 6 ; shank 1°1, © 
The tail is unfortunately broken, so that its length, and that.of the whole 
bird, is not worth giving. The resemblance of this individual in all essential 
structural characters to the ordinary Bhimraj is, however, so great, that I 
do not doubt that the tail will prove to have a similar form with long 
racket-tipped outermost feathers, 
The bird was a young hand-reared one, like all Bhimrajs I have seen for 
sale. Whether it would have lost any of the white on its first moult is of 
course doubtful, but D. paradiseus, unlike many other Dronges, is not much 
marked with white below in its youth, so that it is quite possible that the 
white lower parts are permanent in this form. 
Mr, Rutledge tells me that he has had three similar specimens to that 
described, and that they all came from Segowli in the Gorakhpur district, 
Whe Natives, he says, consider the form distinct, and call it the “King 
