BITCHANGA LONGICATJDATA. 391 



west coast, nor does Mr. Holdsworth appear to have done so. It is therefore singular that it should be a 

 common species on the opposite side of the island. It is an occasional visitant to the west coast : I once 

 noticed an example in October in the Fort at Colombo, but it quickly disappeared into the interior. 

 Mr. Holdsworth likewise met with it in that district, obtaining a specimen about sixteen miles from Colombo. 

 Further south on this side of the island it is unknown. I have seen it in the Wellaway Korale; and 

 Mr. Bligh writes me of a Black Drongo which frequented his estate in Haputale in the month of November, 

 which must have belonged to this species. Other evidence than this of its ascending the hills I have never 

 obtained. 



This Drongo inhabits the whole of the Indian peninsula. Jerdon writes of it : — " The Long-tailed Drongo 

 is found wherever there is lofty forest jungle, from the Himalayas to Travancore .... I have killed it in 

 Malabar, the Wynaad, Coorg, and the Nilghiris ; it is found occasionally about Calcutta and all along the 

 Himalayas up to 8000 feet of elevation. It is tolerably common at Darjiling." Captain Hutton says that it 

 is the only species of Drongo which visits Mussourie, arriving from the Dhoon in the middle of March. 

 Captain C. H. Marshall records it from Murree. In the south of India it appears to be a permanent resident. 

 Mr. Bourdillon remarks that it is common in Travancore, and, as I have remarked, it is probably from there 

 that it visits Ceylon ; but why it should arrive so frequently on the east coast is somewhat puzzling. 



Mr. Fairbank records it from Khandala, and says that it is rarely found in the Ahmednagar district. 

 Jerdon remarks that Adams found it common in Cashmere, which must be its extreme limit to the north 

 and west. 



Habits. — Heavy jungle and forest are the localities principally frequented by this Drongo, the vicinity 

 of open places, banks of rivers, or margins of secluded tanks being usually chosen by it in which to take up 

 its quarters ; and there it subsists on the insectivorous diet so rife in the tropical woods. It perches on the tops 

 of tall trees or on some outstanding branch, from which prominent outlook it sallies forth on the beetles and 

 various winged insects which pass it, and then returns to its post to discuss the prey thus captured. It is an 

 inquisitive and somewhat querulous species, chasing Hawks and Crows, and not unfrequently consorting with 

 Bulbuls and other small birds for the purpose of mobbing an unfortunate Owl which has been discovered 

 abroad during the daylight. I have more than once found it pursuing the Devil-bird. On first arriving in 

 the island it is found in avenues and groves of trees near human habitations, but it soon disappears for its 

 sylvan haunts. It is often noticed on the edges of roads leading through the forest, and may easily be 

 recognized from other Drongos by its long tail and generally slender outline. It is one of the last birds to 

 retire in the evening, and often makes a supper off the beetles, termites, bugs, &c. which are abroad during 

 the short twilight of the tropics. Its notes are varied and shrill in tone, and some of them are cleverly 

 imitated by the Common Green Bulbul, Phyllornis jerdoni. I have usually met with it in pairs, but once or 

 twice have seen a small party together. Jerdon remarks that it now and then makes a considerable circuit, 

 apparently capturing several insects, before returning to its perch, and then reseating itself on some other 

 tree ; he likewise states that three or four are sometimes seen together in scattered company, but that each 

 returns independently to its own perch. Layard's remarks as to this Drongo perching on the backs of 

 cattle apparently apply, as heretofore remarked, to the Black Drongo so common in the open about Jaffna. 



Nidification. — This species breeds in India during the months of March, April, and May, building, 

 according to Captain Hutton, a very neat nest, usually placed on the bifurcation of a horizontal branch of 

 some tall tree. " It is constructed of grey lichens gathered from the trees and fine seed-stalks of grasses 

 firmly and neatly interwoven ; with the latter it is also usually lined, although sometimes a black fibrous 

 lichen is used ; externally the materials are kept together by being plastered over with spiders' webs." There 

 are, says Mr. Hume, two types of this bird's eggs — the one of a pale pinkish salmon-coloured ground, streaked, 

 blotched, and clouded somewhat openly, except at the large end, with reddish pink ; the other has a pale 

 pinkish-white ground, blotched boldly, almost exclusively, at the larger end in a broad irregular zone with 

 brownish red. They vary from 0-85 to TOl in length by from 0"7 to 0"75 inch in breadth. 



