THE BEONZED DRONGO. 
223 
Sianij Cambodia_, China and Japan. It is suggested that in the two latter 
countries it is merely a seasonal visitor, but I can find no information on 
the subject. It has once been procured on the Andaman Islands. 
Mr. Davison says : — I first met with this species on the island of 
Mergui^ and both there and thence to the southern limit of our territory I 
found it very abundant. 
" This is much more of a forest species than any of the other King- 
Crows, but it also occurs in clearings and occasionally in gardens. 
Its note and habits are much the same as those of the other species^ 
and like them it is fond of perching on the top of some dead tree or other 
commanding station, from which it constantly makes short sallies after 
passing insects. It is always seen singly.'''' 
Genus CHAPTIA, Hodgs, 
216. CHAPTIA ^NEA. 
THE BEONZED DEONGO. 
Dicrurus aeneus, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. ix. p. 586. Chaptia malay- 
ensis, A. Hay, J. A. 8. B. xv. p. 294 ; Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 153 ; Tiueedd. Ibis, 
1877, p. 315 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. iii. p. 244 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. 
p. 218 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 92. Edolius picinus (*S'. Miill.), Bonap. Cons}). 
Av. i. p. 352. Chaptia aenea, Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 433 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, 
p. 192 ; Bl. ^ Wald. B. Burm. p. 128 ; Hwne, S. F. iii. p. 100 ; Armstrong, S. F. 
iv. p. 320 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. iii. p. 243 ; Anders. Yunnan Exp)ed. 
p. 652 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 217 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 92 ; Gates, S. F. viii. 
p. 166 ; ScuUij, S. F. viii. p. 272 ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 173. 
Description. — Male and female. The whole plumage black, glossed with 
metallic bronze on the whole upper plumage, also on the lengthened 
feathers of the throat and breast and on the upper abdomen ; lower abdo- 
men, vent and under tail- coverts dull brownish. 
Length 9*5 inches, tail 5^ wing 5, tarsus '65^ bill from gape 1. The 
female is of about the same size. 
I am of opinion that C. cenea and C. malayensis are not specifically 
separable. Typical birds difi'er, but there are numerous specimens which 
it is impossible to assign with certainty to one or the other. C. (jenea is 
generally a larger bird and has the rump and abdomen dull grey, whereas 
in C. malayensis those parts are as glossy as the remainder of the plumage. 
These differential characters, however, only hold good in birds taken from 
the two extreme limits of the range. 
