OF DICRURUS. 



25 



To these differences I should add that the tarsi are rather longer and 

 smoother than in the foregone. 



The plumage too is totally different, and is as follows. The top of 

 the head, dorsal neck, upper part of the back, and scapulars (besides hav- 

 ing looser and more elongated webs than in the foregone) are slaty blue. 

 A broad line of perfect black passes round the base of the upper mandi- 

 ble through the eyes to the sides of the neck. The throat, cheeks below 

 the eyes, and centre of the breast and belly, thighs, internal wing coverts, 

 and inner margins of the quills, on their internal surface, white. 



The sides of breast and belly, and the lower part of the back, the 

 upper and under tail coverts, and outer margins of the lateral tail feathers 

 near the body, are pale clear ferruginous — the wings and tail dusky, the 

 former with the outer margins of all the feathers, but the great quills 

 longitudinally striped with rufescent white, and the latter with all its 

 feathers tipped with the same colour. 



This bird is also somewhat smaller than the other, measuring only 

 in extreme length nine and half inches, whereof the tail, to the roots, is 

 five inches. The tail therefore is as long in proportion as in the fore- 

 gone ; and it must be obvious from the above description of it that, when 

 slightly expanded, it is wedge-shaped. The irides are dull brown : the 

 legs and bill are black, as in the foregone ; and I need hardly add— hav- 

 ing already asserted the general resemblance of the birds — that the bill, 

 tongue, nostrils, legs, wings, and tail, are alike in form and proportions, 

 saving the difference specifically noted. 



This bird is much rarer and shyer than the other, and I have had no 

 sufficient opportunities of observing its manners. 



H 



