388 BUCHANGA ATKA. 



species referred to by Layard when, in writing of B. lonfficaudata, he remarked that it perched on the backs of 

 cattle to seek for ticks, on which it largely fed. Its flight is undulating and buoyant ; and when chasing its 

 prey it is capable of performing very rapid evolutions, darting hither and thither, and rising and falling until 

 it has succeeded in its pursuit. Its note is more melodious than that of the rest of its congeners in Ceylon. 



Dr. Jerdon has the following complete account of its habits in India : — " It feeds chiefly on grasshoppers 

 and crickets, which, as Sundevall remarks, appear to be the chief insect-food for birds in India ; also now and 

 then on wasps or bees (hence the Bengal name), on dragonflies, and occasionally on moths or butterflies. It 

 generally seizes its insect-prey on the ground, or whips one off a stalk of grain, frequently catching one in the 

 air ; now and then, when the grasshopper, having flown off, alights in a thick tuft of grass, the King-Crow 

 soars for a few seconds over the spot like a Kestrel. When it has seized an insect, it generally, but not always, 

 returns to the same perch. On an evening, just about sunset, it may often be observed seated on the top of a 

 tree, taking direct upward flights, and catching some small insects that take wing at the time. Like 

 most other birds, when a flight of winged termites takes place, it assembles in numbers to partake of 

 the feast. 



" The King-Crow obtains his familiar name in this country from its habit of pursuing Crows, and also 

 Hawks and Kites, which it does habitually, and at the breeding-season, especially when the female is 

 incubating, with increased vigilance and vigour. If a Crow or Kite approach the tree in which the nest is 

 placed the bold little Drongo flies at them with great spirit and determination, and drives them off to a great 

 distance ; but although it makes a great show of striking them, I must say that I have very rarely seen it 

 do so ; aud certainly I have never seeu it fix on the back of a Hawk with claws and beak for some seconds, as 

 Mr. Phillipps asserts that he has seen. Occasionally others will join the original assailant, and assist in 

 driving off their common enemy." 



A correspondent in ' Stray Feathers,' Mr. Wender, writing from Sholopoor Deccan, says : — " On the 

 8th inst. (Jan.) I saw a King-Crow (B. alblrictus) sitting on a telegraph-wire with a lizard about 6 inches 

 long in its claws, pecking away at it, just as you see a Hawk eating a lizard or a mouse. The lizard, one of 

 those fragile light-coloured little fellows which one sees running about in long grass, was not quite dead, 

 though he had ceased to struggle violently. The bird appeared to be pulling the lizard's intestines out in a 

 most deliberate manner." 



Some very interesting details concerning this well-known bird are furnished by Mr. Ball in his 

 excellent paper on the Birds of Chota Nagpur. Referring to Dr. Jerdon's doubt as to its striking other 

 birds, he says : — " On one occasion, however, I saw one actually carried on the back of a large Owl 

 {Ascalaphia bengalensis) which flew out of a tree where it was being tormented by these birds and 

 Pies [Dendrocitta rufa). In illustration of the somewhat miscellaneous character of the food of these 

 birds I may mention that I remember one day in Calcutta opening a verandah chick (curtain) which had 

 not been in use for some time, thus disturbing a colony of Bats that had made the inside coils their 

 home ; out they new into the daylight, when they were immediately seen and hawked up by some King- 

 Crows, who took them to neighbouring trees, where they quietly devoured them .... Late as they are in 

 going to roost they are generally the first birds to be on the move in the morning. I have freqiiently 

 heard them calling to one another long before dawn, when I have been travelling in the hot 

 weather." 



Xidification. — I was unable while in Ceylon to obtain any information from my correspondents at Jaffna 

 concerning the nesting of this species. A comparison of its eggs with those of the continental form would 

 be extremely interesting, and the matter is one which future workers in the island should pay attention to. 

 In India, May, June, and July are said to be the favourite months for nesting, although eggs are occasionally 

 taken in April and August. Mr. Hume writes that it usually builds pretty high up in tall trees, in some 

 fork not quite at the outside of the foliage, " constructing a broad shallow cup, and lays normally four eggs, 

 although I have found five." The nests " are all composed of tiny twigs and fine grass-stems, and the roots 

 of the khus-khus grass, as a rule, neatly and tightly woven together, and exteriorly bound round with a 

 good deal of cobweb, in which a few feathers are sometimes entangled ; the cavity is broad and shallow, and 

 at times lined with horsehair or fine grass, but most commonly only with khus. The bottom of the nest is 



