EVEN-TAILED DRONGO. 
Dici'urus atnpennis , Swains. 
Entirely glossy blueisli-black ; tail almost even ; inner web 
of tlie quill-featliers very deep black. 
Three specimens of this species, which we consider 
as altogether new, were sent from Sierra Leone 
with the Bristle-necked thrushes here described, so 
that we have no doubts whatsoever as to its being 
a species peculiar to Western Africa. 
It is almost impossible, in a group of birds posses- 
ing so few marks of distinction among the species 
as the present, to find specific names for each which 
will express something definite and peculiar. We 
have therefore been obliged to name this from a 
circumstance not very expressive, yet calculated in 
some measure to identify it. 
The only species with which this may be con- 
founded is the D. remifer in a young state, where 
the tail is also even. In this, however, .there is a 
very slight indication of the forked structure in two 
out of the three specimens. So slight, however, 
that there is only two-tenths of an inch difference 
between the length of the middle and the outer- 
most tail-feathers. All the tail-feathers are trun- 
cated at their tips, but having the shaft prolonged 
