— 360 — ■, 



remembered; has alvvays to be performed amidst the ceaseless inteiTuptions inseparable from tlie duties of 

 an officer iu a public Museum. But at the same time I cannot help feeling tliat many of the points on 

 whicli Lord Tweed dal e speaks ex cathedra and with the greatest eonfidence, are matters of individual 

 opinion, on whicli perbaps the next student of tbe group will agree witb neither of us: as bas already 

 happened witb tbe Moluccan Drongos, wbicb I was content to keep in the geuus Chibia, wbicb Lord 

 Tweeddale would place in tbe genus Dkrurus (cf. P. Z. S. 1878, p. 614), and whicli Count Salvadori 

 puts in neitber of these genera, but forms for their reception a new genus Dicruropsis (P. Z. S. 1878, p. 88). 



My own Impression is that the Dicruridcc will always be a difficult group to classify naturallj^, 

 and I have never met witb a family of birds in wbicb the genera and even tbe species glided so tbo- 

 rougbly one into tbe othcr, and tbus cbaracters for Separation are niost ilifficult to find. In additiou to these 

 natural bindrances to their study, tbe literature of tbe family was, previously to tbe appearance of tbe 

 'Catalogue of Birds', distributed over a wide field of periodical literature. It is, therefore, scarcely to be 

 wondered at that an attempt to arrange tbe Bicruridce would leave many little defects, wbicb so keen a 

 critic as Lord Tweeddale would at once detect: but at any rate I tbink that tbe issue of the 

 third volume of tbe 'Catalogue' bas produced one bappy result, wbicb will be gratefully accepted by 

 Ornitbologists, and that is, — tbe publication of Lord Tweeddale's cfitiqne. He has long been known to 

 possess tbe finest series of Drongos in any public or private collection, and a connected expression of bis 

 studies on tbe Dicruridce, taking tbe place of tbe scattered contributions wbicb have appeared from bis pen 

 during tbe last tbirty years, will be of great Service to the next student of tbis difficult family. 



Tbe foUowing is a list of the Dicruridce forwarded by Dr. Meyer. As in the Accipitres I have 

 given tbe synonymy of tbe Papuan and Moluccan species, but do not do tbis when the birds are of wide 

 distribution or occur without the limits of the Austro-Malayan subregion, to the exploration of wbicb Dr. 

 Meyer especially directed bis efforts. At the same time, as I have to pass in review my Catalogue of the 

 Dicruridce I have added on tbe prescnt occasion a few notes on Lord Tweeddale's paper. 



Genus Dicrurus, VieilL 

 Dicrurus baMcassius (L.) Sharpe, Cal. B. iü, p. 230. 

 a. b. 9 Batau, Luzon, April 1872. 



Geuus Chibia, Hodg'S. 



Lord Tweeddale fairly Catches me uapping in tlie ränge wbicb I give to tbis genus "tbrough the 

 Malayan peninsula to tbe Moluccas, being found in all tbe principal groups of the Indo-Malayan Islands"; 

 for evidently by my list of species tbis locality is too extended. It is difficult to account for mistakes after 

 a lapse of time and I can ouly suppose that I had intended to include Dicrurus annectens as a Chibia and 

 bad ultimately referred it to Dicrurus without remembering to alter tbe ränge given to the genus. 



Genus Dicruropsis, Salvacl. 



If the Austro-Malayan Drongos are not true ChiUce, as Lord Tweeddale says, then perbaps it is 

 better to keep tbem under a distinct generic heading, Dicruropsis, as Count Salvadori proposes, but the 

 Chief difficulty seems to me still, as it was two years ago, to ignore the fact of tbe "denuded shafts of a 

 certain number of the i'rontal plumes," as Lord Tweeddale correctly describes them, or "tbe long silky bairs," 

 as for simplicity's sake I term them, being present iu Dicrurus pectoralis of the Sula Islands. 



Dicruropsis atricaeriilea. 



Dicrurus atrocaeruleus, Gray, P- Z. S. 1860, p. 354: Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 171 (1865): Gray, Handl.BA, 

 p. 285 (1869): Sahad. Ann. Mus. Civic Genov. VII, p. 772 (1875). 



