I840j 



of the Peninsula of India, 



and the forehead, which also is nearly devoid of the green, chin and 

 throat cinereous; breast darker do. banded with rufous and white; 

 belly pale cinereous, faintly marked with pale rufous and white ; under 

 tail coverts white ; tail black; the inner webs banded with white (except 

 the 2 centre ones), and all tipt white. 



Another specimen has the plumage above entirely cinereous, with a 

 slight indication of the greenish gloss on the wings only. Tail as in the 

 last, beneath pale cinereous, vent and under tail coverts white, quills with 

 a broad white baad on their internal webs, 



Irides, in one specimen (the last) of a fine ruby red. In the first one 

 of a blood red, bill blackish red beneath (at the base), also at the gape 

 and internally ; feet reddish. 



Whether this bird is identical with Cue. Jlavus of Gmel. or a differ- 

 ent species altogether, I leave to be decided hereafter. 



Length 9 inches; wing 4| ; tail 4|- ; tarsus yVhsj bill to front 

 -«^ths; at gape -j-V^^' 



225. — C. dicruroides. — Pseudornis dicruroides, Hodgson, Journal A. 

 Soc. of Bengal, No. 86. p. IdQ.^Drongo Cuckoo, or Black fork-tailed 

 Cuckoo. 



This most extraordinary species of Cuckoo, disguised so effectually 

 in the garb of the common Ki?ig Crow (Dicrurus), has been lately des- 

 cribed and figured by Mr. Hodgson, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal. I obtained a single specimen in the Wynaad, near Manan- 

 toddy, and never again observed it. As Mr. Hodgson's paper may not 

 have been seen by some of the readers of this Journal, I add his 

 description — " Black with a changeable blue or green gloss — inner 

 wing and tail coverts, and pair of extreme tail feathers, cross- 

 barred with white. An oblique white bar across the wings internally, 

 and high up. Bill black. Irides hoary brown ; palate red. Legs and 

 feet blue, 10 to 10|- inches long; bill 1 yV^^; tail 5^ to 5?; tarsus J-fths. 

 Long an teal toe -fg-ths; long posteal do. y^ths; weight U oz. Sexes 

 alike, exclusively monticulous and a forester. Tail of 10 feathers divari- 

 cated and forked. The two extreme feathers smaller than any of the 

 rest.'* Mr. Hodgson further says that " the cuculus lugahris, will I 

 think, be found to have a forked-tail, and to constitute a second species 

 of our proposed new genus.'* 



I can only add to this, that in my specimen the legs were reddish, as 

 in the last species, and that the wing is 5 yVhs long. Irides also were 

 reddish brown. I may mention that I had in my manuscript notes named 

 this bird ** dicruroides^^ or * dicruricaudus,' a name which its extraor- 



