438 Birds of Celebes." Dicrnridae. 



f 2. Dicrurus leucops axillaris (Salvad.). 



e. Dicruropsis leucops pt. (1) Sharpe, Mitth. Mus. Dresden 1878, HI, 361; Meyer, 1. c. 



note; (2) W. Bias., Ztschi-. ges. Orn. 1885, 283. 



f. Dicruropsis axillaris (1) Salvad., Atti Ac. Sc. Tor. XIII, 1878, 1184; (2) Meyer, Isis 



Dresden 1884, 6, 31; (3) W. Bias., Ornis 1888, 582. 

 "Gating tahiti". Great Sangi, Nat. Coll. 

 Description. Salvador! f 1. 



Adult. Not differing from the adult of Celebes, except that the axiUaries and under -wing- 

 coverts are more broadly tipped with white (N. B. in one of our 3 adults, C 12683, 



this is not the case). 

 Immature. A younger specimen has fewer metallic tips to the feathers of the breast and a 



few of the feathers of the lower breast and abdomen tipped with whitish cinnamon; 



the under wing- coverts and axillaries more broadly tipped with white than in the 



adult (Great Sangi, C 1177). 

 Measurements. Wing (3 adults) 162 — 170 mm; tail 137 — 144; bill from nostril 21.5 — 26; 



tarsus 25. 

 Distribution. Great Sangi (Meyer e i, Bruijn / 7, Platen f 3, Nat. Coll. in Dresd. and 



Tring Mus.). 



Dicrurus leucops is a very bold and familiar bird in Celebes. Its cries are 

 highly varied, one individual, observes Meyer (a 7), making such a noise in 

 the morning that the forest appears to be full of various birds. In flight as Dr. 

 Hicks on (c 3) remarks, it has the habit of opening and shutting its two long 

 outer tail-feathers like a pair of scissors in action. It feeds on insects, such 

 as grasshoppers, etc. (a 7). 



The Celebes Drongo may be distinguished from its allies in the East Indies 

 by its milk-white iris; in the other species it is red or brown. In this connection 

 the Sarasins made a discovery of some interest; they found that the iris is 

 also brown in the young of the Celebes Drongo. This was proved in a series 

 of seven specimens, from the nestling to the immature individual, while in the 

 adults they found it always to be white. This seems to prove that the Celebes 

 species is descended from a race with brown eyes. D. leucops is most nearly 

 related to D. pectoralis Wall, of the Sula Islands and to the numerous forms 

 of that species — which have for the most part been separated as specifically 

 distinct — from Obi, Borneo, Palawan, Sooloo, New Britain, and the D'Entre- 

 casteaux Islands. Count Salvad ori (P. Z. S. 1878, 88) lays some stress upon 

 the presence in C. pectoralis of long recurved hairs sprouting from the forehead ; 

 these, however, as pointed out an tea, are also found in old examples — per- 

 haps old males, or males in breeding-dress — of D. leucops, as also in D. bor- 

 iieensis described by Sharpe in 1879. In Dicrurus hottentottus (L.) of Indo- 

 China the hairs are developed to such an extent as to form a sort of crest. 



These hairs, remarks Lord Tweeddale (Ibis 1868, 73), "are really the 

 denuded shafts of a certain number of the frontal plumes. Under a lens the 

 aborted rudiments of the lateral webs can be readily detected. Behind these 

 denuded shafts are usually (in D. hottentottus] a number of elongated frontal 



