400 DISSEMUKUS PARADISEUS. 



are more lengthened than before and pointed at the tips ; under tail-coverts and under wing-coverts both with 

 white terminal spots. 

 At each succeeding stage the shafts of the racket-feathers become more denuded and the crest lengthens; the spots 

 on the lower tail-coverts finally disappear, but one or two always remain on the under wing-coverts. 



Obs. The Ceylonese Backet-tailed Drongo constitutes a race in which the racket-feathers are almost constantly smaller 

 than those from any of the localities in the wide range of this species. It may, I think, safely be laid down as a 

 rule that the maximum length of these feathers in our adult birds is about equal to the minimum in the same 

 from Malabar, Burmah, Tenasserim, and Siam. This, at least, is the result of an examination of all the material 

 at my disposal in England. In adult examples in the British Museum from Travancore, Malabar, Moalmaza, 

 and Shenogah, the length by which the racket-feathers exceed the penultimate varies from 7'0 to 9*0; and 

 I notice that Mr. Hume gives the measurement of the entire feather of a Travancore specimen collected by 

 Mr. Bourdillon at 18*75 inches. The racket in these birds is of different shape from the Ceylonese ; it is of 

 greater length in the first place, and again longer in proportion to the breadth of the web ; as a rule, likewise, the 

 basal part of the web slopes off to the shaft beyond the tip of the penultimate. The wings also attain a greater 

 length than in the island forms, <r3, G'4, 6-6 inches being some of the measurements recorded by Mr. Hume in 

 his exhaustive article contained in the ' Birds of Tenasserim.' In fully adult specimens from South India, the 

 crest resembles that of our old birds : but in the different stages of immaturity I observe that it bears a different 

 character. The crest in the young bird is less developed : an example in the British Museum with the racket well 

 formed, and a bare shaft of 2 inches in length, has no more crest than a Ceylonese D. lophorhinus : in another bird 

 from Travancore the anterior portion of the cresl is bushy and erect ; in another, still older, from Moalmaza, the 

 whole cresl projects forward in a long tuft (this is not from the making-up of the skin), the posterior portion of 

 which stands up to a height of 0'9 inch above the culmen, In all immature birds that I have examined, the 

 prevailing characteristic is that the anterior feathers of the crest are longer than the posterior ones. 



1 find, on examination of the Tenasserim examples in the British Museum, and in the collection lately sent home by 

 Mr. Hume, that the length of the racket-feathers averages the same as in the South-Indian, exceeding the penul- 

 timate from 7-0 to 9*5 inches ; the racket is likewise of the same character, recurving more* inwards than in 

 our bird. The Siamese birds vary much in length of the racket-feather. One in the British Museum exceeds the 

 penultimate by nearly 10 inches ; another, however, in the Swinhoe collection, approaches nearest of all that I 

 have examined to the Ceylonese form. Its measurements are : — wing (3-1 inches ; outer tail-feather 12-75, exceeding 

 the penultimate by 6 - 9 ; racket 3-0 ; bill to gape 1*3 (shorter than Ceylonese examples as a rule); crest precisely 

 the same. It is on the evidence of this specimen, coming from the opposite extreme of this bird's wide range, 

 coupled with the fact of the species being so variable, that 1 do not keep the Ceylonese form distinct as a sub- 

 species under .Mr. Sharpe's title ceyhnensis. More extended observations than I have been able to make, and a 

 greater series of examples, are both necessary in order to prove whether the extreme limit of the length of the 

 racket-feather and the size of the racket itself as given above are correct. 



In the north of the island there are sometimes to be found very singular and abnormal examples of this bird with the 

 cresl tolerably well developed ami recurving over the forehead, but with the outer tail-feather intermediate 

 etween that of 1). lophorhinus ami a mere nestling D. paradiseus. I obtained a specimen in the depths of the 

 est between Kanthelai ami Hurulle tanks, and another in some magnificent timber-jungle at Umeragolla, on 

 the Dambulla and Kurunegala Road : a third exists in the Layard collection at Poole. The web is entire, recurving 

 quite inwards at the tip, whereas that of a young nestling even, of the ordinary form, has a recess or gap, as shown 

 m the woodcut, p. 402 ; furthermore, one of the specimens i^ quite adult, having no spots on the under tail-coverts. 

 lluinu' met with but these examples, I feel inclined to look upon them as an abnormal form of D. paradiseus. 

 If, however, additional specimens come to hand, eventually it mayprove to be a distinct species; and forit I would 

 then propose the name of D. intermedins. 



Distribution. — This showy bird is chiefly an inhabitant of the dry region of Ceylon, from the Vanni to 

 Puttalam on the west side, extending through all the eastern portion of the island and flat jungle-clad countrv 

 bel ween rlaputale and the south-east coast up to the slopes of the Morowak-Koralc ranges. In the latter region, 

 particularly in forest on the banks of rivers, and in most of the northern forests, it is very numerous, approaching 



1 This is, of course, when the bare portion of the shaft near the racket is pressed down iuto a horizontal position, 

 which always gives the racket the normal twist, provided it be not injured. 



