1846.] or Little Known Species of Birds. 299 



17. D. cineraceus, (Horsf.) : — leucophceus, Vieillot ; — ceylonensis, 

 Stephens. Lord Arthur Hay has presented the Society with a Malacca 

 example of this species. Its length, to tip of middle tail-feathers, is 

 about ten inches, the outermost exceeding them by about an inch, and 

 the tail-fork much divaricated ; wing five inches and three-quarters : 

 bill as in D. longicaudatus and D. ccerulescens, but less carinate above, 

 especially towards its base : general plumage deep ash-grey, passing to 

 blackish just over the beak, also on the exterior web of the outermost 

 tail-feathers and on the wing-primaries ; ear-coverts, and around the 

 eye, with the vent and lower tail- coverts, albescent grey : bill and feet 

 black. 



Respecting the remaining semi-described species of oriental Dicruri- 

 da, I have no information to contribute. 



Artamus, Vieillot : Ocypterus, Cuv. ; Leptopteryx, Horsfield. I do not 

 range this very peculiar genus here from any belief in its affinity for the 

 Dicruridce, but simply because I have no idea where else to place it. It 

 is chiefly an Australian group, though one species inhabits the Philip- 

 pines, another Java, and a third occurs throughout India. This is the 

 A./uscus, Vieillot, and Ocypterus rufiventer of Valenciennes, referred to 

 O. leucorhynchos in P. Z. S. 1839, p* 158. It is also the Murasiny* 

 Chatterer, and Brown- coloured Swallow, var. A, of Latham. An allied 

 form, the Analcipus hirundinaceus , Swainson, was erroneously assign- 

 ed to India by that author. f A. fuscus has quite the same habits 

 as the various Australian species observed by Gould : except that 

 I could never hear of its clustering in the very singular manner 

 stated of A. sordidus ; i. e. a number of them clinging together, like 

 a swarm of bees, even to the size of a bushel-measure, pendent 

 from a high and bare branch of a tree. In other respects, Mr. Gould's 

 description of the habits of A. sordidus might be transferred to the 

 Indian species. Wherever a high tree rises above its fellows, and projects 

 a bare or dead branch commanding a wide view around, there may 

 commonly be seen a party of these birds, one minute sitting together 

 in a close row, anon sallying forth in quest of insects, and soon return- 

 ing (each separately and independent of the movements of the rest,) to 

 alight and perch together as before. Yet they are not very common, 



* Mispclt Murasing. 

 f Vide p. 45, ante. 



