MALAYAN ORNITHOLOGY. 17 



One morning, I shot a crow just outside my hut at Kuala Kang- 

 sa, there not being half-a-dozen in sight at the time ; but almost at 

 once they arrived in dozens, flocking in from all directions, and 

 making such a clamour that for the rest of the morning my hut 

 was simply uninhabitable. I suppose they were abusing me for 

 having shot their comrade, or perhaps lamenting his death ; anyhow 

 the noise they made was intolerable. 



On the opposite side of the river, exactly in front of our camp, 

 was a patch of cover some two or three acres in extent, where every 

 evening at sunset hundreds of these birds used to assemble to 

 roost ; one of them I shot was 10 J inches in length, beak at front 

 along culmen 2J, tarsus 2 inches ; irides very dark brown ; plumage 

 black, glossed, particularly on the wings and upper parts, with pur- 

 ple and green. 



Platysmtjrus leucopterus (Temm.). 



On the 8th August, 1877, I shot a pair of these birds near Bukit 

 Kopong, on the Moar river. Their very loud, clear notes attracted 

 my attention. At the time I was rather puzzled as to their species : 

 their red eyes and the tuft at the base of the beak reminded me of 

 the Drongo Shrikes, while the white markings of the wings gave 

 them somewhat the appearance of exaggerated Magpie-robins. I 

 also saw two which Mr. Davison's collector had shot in Johor. 



Calornis chalybeius (Horsf.). 



This small Myna is very plentiful throughout the west of the 

 peninsula ; I obtained it in Perak and Malacca, and found it in 

 Singapore during April and May. 



Late in September, 1879, with three friends, I landed on Pulau 

 Nongsa to shoot Pigeons, which were said to be plentiful there. 

 None of the large black and white Carpophaga bicolor were even 

 seen ; but we got several of the common green kind ( Osmotreron 

 vernans) ; and the reports of our guns put up enormous flocks, 

 regular clouds, of these Mynas : they had collected to roost among 

 the bushes, with which the middle of the island was covered. 



Frightened by our shots, they swept backwards and forwards 

 across the island, skimming over the trees at a great pace ; and 

 once passing near, I fired into the thick of them, killing several, 

 all in the uniform metallic- green plumage. 



