DISSEMURUS PARADISEUS. 



(THE RACKET-TAILED DRONGO.) 



Cuculus paradiseus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 172 (1766). 



Edolius malabaricus, Layard & Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. Ceylon B. App. p. 58 (1853) ; 



Jerdon (in pt), B. of Ind. i. p. 437 (1862). 

 Edolius paradiseus, Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 128. 

 Dissemurus malabaricus, Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 439 ; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 288. 

 Dissemurus ceylonensis, Sharpe, Cat. B. iii. p. 264 (1877); Tweeddale, Ibis, 1878, p. 82. 

 Dissemurus paradiseus, Hume, Str. Feath. 1878, p. 222. 

 Le Coucou vert liupe de Siam, Brisson ; Paradise Cuckoo, Lath. ; The Paradise Drongo ; The 



Long-tailed King -Croiv, Europeans in Ceylon. Bhimraj, Hind., lit. " King of the Bees." 

 Maha-kawuda, Sinhalese ; Erattu valem kuruvi, lit. " Double-tailed bird," Tamils in North 



of Ceylon. 



Adult male. Length 17"0 to 19-0 inches, according to length of tail ; wing 5-8 to 6-2 ; tail 11*0 to 12-5 to tip of 

 outer feather, the penultimate, in one of the latter measurement, 6-8 shorter ; racket never exceeding 2 - 75 ; 

 tarsus 09 to 1*0 ; mid toe OS, its claw (straight) 035 ; bill to gape l - 45. 



Female. Length 15-0 to 16-0 inches ; wing 5'6 to 6-1 ; tail 10-0 to ll'O to tip of outer tail-feather, which projects 

 not more than 5-5, and in some only 4*0, beyond the penultimate. 



The above measurements are taken from an extensive series shot, during a period extending over five years, in the 

 north and south of the island ; and I have never met with an example with a longer racket tail-feather than 

 12*5 inches, extending 6-8 beyond the adjacent or penultimate feather, nor ever obtained one in which, when 

 the bird was fully adult and the shaft quite hare, the racket exceeded 2-75 inches in length. In males, the largest 

 of the sexes, the racket-feather seldom reaches 12 inches, and in females seldom exceeds 105 ; the bare portion 

 of the shaft varies from 3*0 to 4 - 75 inches in length. 



Iris varying from brownish red to deep red, mature, but not aged, birds having it of the former hue ; bill, legs, and 

 feet black. 



Plumage deep black, highly glossed on the head, back, rump, wing-coverts, throat, and chest with dark metallic green : 

 on the breast and lower parts the metallic sheen is of a bluer cast than that of the upper surface ; a large frontal 

 crest, the anterior feathers of which are short, very narrow and scantily webbed, and stand erect, while the 

 posterior plumes attain a length, in the finest and oldest specimens, of 1*0 to 1*2 inch and recurve over the 

 forehead touching the crown ; feathers of the sides and back of neck " hackled " ; bases of the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts and lower flank-feathers greyish ; abdomen and under tail-coverts glossless, a few white terminal 

 spots on the under wing-coverts. 



The " racket " turns up perpendicular to the horizontal plane of the tail and curves slightly inwards. 



Young (nestling). Iris brown ; bill black ; legs and feet bluish black. 



Just after quitting the nest (July) the crest is only slightly developed, the posterior feathers scarcely recurved at all 

 and very short ; the plumes of the head and hind neck are short and rounded at the tips ; back and tail glossed 

 with metallic green ; the lateral rectrices are usually about 3 inches longer than the adjacent pair and almost 

 fully webbed, there being a slight indentation, or hollow so to speak, opposite the end of the penultimate ; beneath 

 blackish brown ; under tail -coverts fluffy and without any terminal white spots ; under wing-coverts spotted 

 with white. 



In the next stage (January following), probably acquired by moult in September, the crest is tolerably developed, the 

 posterior feathers lengthened and recurved, but rather open-webbed, the racket-feathers are denuded for about 

 2 inches of most of the inner web, a border next the shaft of about 0-05 inch remaining, the racket about 3-0 in 

 length, and the whole projecting about 4^ to 5-0 inches beyond the penultimate; the feathers of the hind neck 



