1842.] Notes on various Indian and Malayan Birds. 169 



white exterior margins to most of the primaries ; tail as in Tr. ery- 

 throcephalus and Tr. Malabaricus (vide P. Z. S., 1834, 25-6), 



10. Edolius Crishna, Gould, P. Z. S., 1836, 5; Corvus Crishna, Bucha- 

 nan Hamilton ; Crishna Crow, Latham, Gen. Hist. Birds, III, 51 ; 

 Criniger splendens, Tickell, /. A. S., II, 574 ; Cometes (olim Chibia) 

 casta, Hodgson, Ind. Rev. 1837, 324, and /. A. S., 1841, 29. (Hair- 

 crested Drongo). This remarkable and handsome species is not rare 

 about Calcutta, but would appear to be more common in all three 

 regions of Nepal, and there is a specimen in the collection from Dar- 

 jeeling. 



11. E. remifer, Tern. PL Col. 178, apud Shaw's Zoology, XIIL 

 part 2, 140. Mr. Jerdon, I presume, means this by the term retifer 

 (probably a misprint), which he includes in his valuable catalogue of the 

 birds of Peninsular India (Madr. Jour. No. xxv. 241) ; but he adds 

 L. Malabaricus, Shaw, as a synonym, which name is founded on 

 an erroneous identification of two species, and has since been currently 

 bestowed on a third distinct from both, as all are from the present one. 

 This (which is not likely to be Mr. Jerdon's bird) is distinguished from 

 every other known to me, with the exception of one described by 

 Mr. Hodgson (Ind. Rev., 1837, 325-6), by having the terminal 4 inches 

 of the prolonged naked shafts of its outermost tail-feathers barbed 

 equally on both sides ; while from Mr. Hodgson's Melisseus (olim Bhrin- 

 ga) tectirostris, as described by that naturalist, it differs in the Shrike- 

 like form of its bill, the upper mandible of which is strongly hooked, in 

 the comparative shortness of its tarse, and in the feathers of its crown 

 and occiput being of a scale-like form, and not lanceolate like those of the 

 neck : length 10 inches, of wing from bend 5^ inches, and tail 5 inches, 

 being even at the tip, except that the vanes of the outermost feather on 

 each side are shorter than the rest, while the shaft is prolonged and 

 barbless for 8 inches, having then 4 inches of barb as described, 1 inch in 

 width ; moreover, these stems and barbed tips are straight, without any 

 tendency to spire, as in most of the other species. Bill to forehead 

 | inch in a straight line, the tip of the upper mandible much hooked, 

 and its base impended by an elevated ridge of recurved feathers, succes- 

 sively longer to the front : tarse f inch. Colour altogether richly steeled 

 black, with a brilliant metallic shine, the coronal feathers scale-like, the 

 nuchal hackled, and the pectoral intermediate. 



