DlCRURINJi:. 431 



Bill aud feet black. Bill more depressed than in D. macrocer- 

 cus, and less strongly keeled. Irides brownish-red ; tarsus very 

 short ; tail-feathers more slender than in any of the others ; feet 

 small. 



Length nearly 12 inches ; extent 16 ; wing 5^ ; tail 7 or 6| ; 

 tarsus jQ ; bill front ; weight 1 oz. 9 dwt. 



The Long-tailed Drongo is found wherever there is lofty forest 

 jungle, from the Himalayas to Travancore and Ceylon, and through 

 Assam to Burmah and China. I have killed it in Malabar, the 

 Wynaad, Coorg, and the Neilgherries. It is found occasionally 

 about Calcutta and all along the Himalayas up to 8,000 ft. of ele- 

 vation. It is tolerably common at Darjeeling, Dr. Adams says that 

 it is common in Cashmere, where he has often found the nest, and 

 he confirms Hutton's account of the nest and eggs. Captain Hutton 

 records it as being migratory at Mussooree, coming in about 

 March, and retiring about September, but only to the Doon or 

 lower valleys. 



It is a permanent resident in the South of India. It takes its 

 perch on or near the summits of lofty trees, and now and then 

 makes a considerable circuit, apparently capturing several insects 

 before returning to its perch, and then re-seating itself on some 

 other tree. At other times it merely sallies forth, picks up an insect 

 on the wing, returning to the same perch. At times I have seeii 

 three or four together,but at some little distance from each other, and 

 each returning independently to its own perch. I have never seen 

 this I>rongo descend to the ground after an insect. Its chief food 

 is bees, bu«-s, and other insects. Its flight is similar to that of 

 macrocercus, but more elegant and more continued. Like that 

 species it occasionally drives Kites and Crows from its neighbour- 

 hood. I found its nest on one occasion, in April, in Lower 

 Malabar. It was shallow and loosely made with roots, and lined 

 with hair, above 20 feet from the ground, on the fork of a tree ; and 

 it contained three eggs of a pinkish-white colour, with some long- 

 ish rusty or brick-red spots. Hutton describes the nest, as seen at 

 Mussooree, to be neatly made with lichens, grasses, and spiders' 

 webs; the eggs, he says, are very variable, some being white with brick- 

 red spots, as mine were ; others with claret spots ; others again 



