BUCHANGA LONGICAUDATA. 



(THE LONG-TAILED DRONGO.) 



Dicrurus macrocercus, Jerd. Cat. B. South India, Madr. Journ. 1839, x. p. 240 (nee Vieill.). 

 Dicrurus longicaudatus, " A. Hay," Jerd. Madr. Journ. 1845, xiii. pt. 2, p. 121 ; Blyth, Cat. 



B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 202 (1849) ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. p. 152 (1854); 



Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 129 ; Bourdillon, Str. Feath. 1876, 



p. 394 ; Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 430 (1862) ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 97. 

 Buchanga longicaudata, Walden, Ibis, 1868, p. 316 ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 438 ; Hume, 



Nests and Eggs (Rough Draft), p. 189 (1873) ; Legge, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 202 ; Sharpe, 



Cat. B. iii. p. 249. 

 Buchanga waldeni, Beav. Ibis, 1868, p. 497. 

 King-Crow, Europeans in India and Ceylon. 



Kiljinga, Beng. ; Sahim or Sahem Pha, Lepchas ; Chechum, Bhot. 

 Erratoo valan kuruvi, Tam., lit. "Double-tailed bird ;" Pastro barbeiro, Portuguese in Ceylon. 



Adult male and female. Length 105 inches ; wing 5 - to 5 - 4, average dimensions of wing in males procured in 



Ceylon 5"2 ; tail 5-8 to G-0, depth of fork about 2-0 ; tarsus 0-7 ; mid toe 0-55 to 0-6, claw (straight) 03 to 



033; bill to gape 1-1 to 1-12. 

 The above dimensions are from examples killed in Ceylon ; an immature female shot in Eamisserum Island measures 



only 4 - 8 in the wing ; one procured by Mr. Bourdillon in Travancore 5*4 ; a second 5-0. The measurement of a 



third, of which the sex is not stated, is given at 5-55. 

 Iris red, in some almost scarlet ; bill, legs, and feet black. 

 Above metallic bluish black with a grey tinge on the back, increasing towards the upper tail-coverts ; quills and tail 



with a strong greenish lustre on the outer webs, the inner being brownish black ; beneath dull black pervaded 



with greyish, which hue is strongest on the breast, flanks, and abdomen ; a slight steel-blue gloss on the chest : 



under wing-coverts greyish black ; under surface of quills near the base browuish. 



Young. Iris brownish red. The immature or bird of the year has the lower parts greyer than in the adult ; the 

 under tail-coverts have deep white tips in the form of terminal bars ; beneath the carpal joint the feathers are 

 also tipped with white, and the under wing-coverts have terminal spots of the same. The white markings, as in 

 the case of B. atra, leave the under wing-coverts first ; they seem to remain on the under tail-coverts until the 

 bird is almost mature, as few specimens which I have seen are entirely without them : immature examples 

 occasionally have one more white spot at the tips of the tail-feathers. 



J 'S. This is a variable species in size. Probably the birds which visit us in the cool season are bred in the south of 

 India, and are consequently smaller than those from the northern parts of the Empire. A male, however, in the 

 national collection from Darjiling has the wing 5-62 inches, tail G-4, dimensions not much exceeding those which 

 visit Ceylon. 



Allied forms inhabit Burmah and the sub-Himalavau district, and were united by Jerdon with the present. B. cineracea, 

 from the former region, is a smaller bird than the present species and much paler, being " ashy grey " above, 

 and the same, but somewhat duskier, beneath ; wing 4-9 to 5-2 inches. B. pijrrhops is, according to Mr. Sharpe, 

 a good subspecies of the above, being larger than it. Mr. Hume considers it to be merely a grey form of 

 B. longicaudata. 



Distribution. — This species arrives in the north of Ceylon about the middle or latter part of October. 

 It is decidedly migratory, as no individuals are seen between April and September, and at the season of its 

 appearance it is always first met with on the seashore. At Trincomalie I noticed it in the Fort when it first 

 arrived ; it lingered about the neighbourhood and then betook itself to the jungles, through which it is 

 diffused in tolerable numbers as far south as the Seven Korales. It does not appear to be common in the 

 north. I have seen one or two individuals from the Jaffna district, but I did not meet with it on the north- 



