174 Notes on various Indian and Malayan Birds. [No. 122. 



greenish cast, but more of a greyish-blue, and is not very bright ; and 

 the under-parts especially are duller, the throat and belly being dusky 

 and having scarcely any or indeed no gloss. The smaller specimen 

 measures but lOf inches long, the wing 5 J inches, outermost tail- 

 feather 5^, the medial (which are both imperfect in the other) 4f 

 inches : the twirl of the outermost tail-feathers is less than in E. 

 balicassius. 



I have also a species from the Malay peninsula, which is even inter- 

 mediate to the last and D. balicassius, but has the tail much less forked 

 than in either, and in this respect and also in its plumage approximates 

 to my presumed C. viridescens. Bill much as in the latter, but widen- 

 ing somewhat more to the base, its upper ridge more elevated than in 

 annectans, and the moderately hooked tip of the upper mandible inter- 

 mediate to those of annectans and balicassius, and nearly resembling that 

 of viridescens. Length of three specimens 9f to 10^- inches, of wing 

 from bend 5£ to 5-f inches, outermost tail-feathers 4f to 5 inches, medial 

 4J- to 4 ~ inches ; bill to forehead 4 \, and to gape 1^ inch, its vertical 

 depth at base exceeding f inch ; tarse £ inch : frontal plumes not 

 lengthened, but erect and reversed anteriorly, though to a much less 

 extent than in viridescens ; outer tail-feathers curling just perceptibly 

 upwards at the tip. The plumage of this species very closely resembles 

 that of E. balicassius, but inclines a little to assume the character of 

 that of E. viridescens ; the tail in the latter being all but square, while in 

 the present it is very distinctly though slightly forked, and the much 

 more angular ridge of the bill will always serve to distinguish it readily 

 from E. balicassius. As out of the host of half descriptions in Latin, 

 French, and English, to which I have access, there is not one that applies 

 satisfactorily to this unquestionable species, I must sever the Gordian tie 

 by styling it E. affinis* 



* Recurring now to Mr. Hodgson's paper on the Drongos repeatedly referred to, 

 it may be as well to recapitulate the conclusions at which I have arrived, concerning 

 the species which are there described. 



The Cometes (olim Chibia) casia, yields precedence to Edolius Crishna, Gould, 

 and has long previously been figured and described by Latham as the Crishna Crow. 



The Cometes (olim Chibia) Malabaroides, H. is the Lanius Malabaricus as des- 

 cribed by Shaw and figured by Latham and Stephens, but not the Malabar Shrike or 

 Drongo of Sonnerat and Buffon, nor that recently styled Malabaricus by Gould and 

 others : it is the E. grandis, Gould. 



The Melisseus (olim Bhringa) tectirostris, H. would seem to have been previously 

 undescribed, and must be very closely allied to E. remifer. 



