1 
438 Birds of Celebes: Dieruridae. 1 
2. Dicrurus leucops axillaris (Salvad.). 
e. Dicruropsis leucops pt. (1) Sharpe, Mitth. Mus. Dresden 1878, III, 361; Meyer, 1. c. 
note; (2) W. Bias., Ztsclu-. ges. Om. 1885, 283. 
f. Dicruropsis axillaris (1) Salvad., Atti Ac. Sc. Tor. XIII, 1878, 1184; (2) Meyer, Isi s 
Dresden 1884, 6, 31; (3) W. Bias., Ornis 1888, 582. 
“Gating tahiti”, G-reat Sangi, Nat. Ooll. 
Description. Salvadori f 1. 
Adult. Not differing from the adult of Celebes, except that the axillaries and under wing- 
coverts are more hi-oadly tipped with white (N. B. in one of onr 3 adults, 0 12683, 
this is not the case). 
Immature. A younger specimen has fewer metallic tips to the feathers of the breast and a 
few of the feathers of the lower breast and abdomen tijjped with whitish cinnamon; 
the under wing- coverts and axillaries more broadly tipped with white than in the 
adult (Great Sangi, 0 1177). 
Measurements. Wing (3 adults) 162 — 170 mm; tail 137 — 144; bill from nostril 21.5 — 26; 
tarsus 25. 
Distribution. Great Sangi (Meyer e 1, Bruijn f 1, Platen f 3, Nat. Coll, in Dresd. and 
Tring Mus.). 
Dicrurus leucops is a very bold and familiar bird in Celebes. Its cries are 
highly varied, one individual, observes Meyer (a 7), making such a noise in 
the morning that the forest appears to be full of various birds. In flight as Dr. 
Hickson (c 3) remarks, it has the habit of opening and shutting its two long 
outer tail-feathers like a pair of scissors in action. It feeds on insects, such 
as grasshoppers, etc. (a 7). 
The Celebes Drongo may be distinguished from its allies in the East Indies 
by its milk-white iris; in the other species it is red or hrown. In this connection 
the Sarasins made a discovery of some interest; they found that the iris is 
also brown in the young of the Celebes Drongo. 'Ihis was proved in a series I 
of seven specimens, from the nestling to the immature individual, while in the 
adults they found it always to he white. This seems to prove that the Celebes 
species is descended from a race with brown eyes. D. leucops is most nearly 
related to D. pectoralis W all. of the Sula Islands and to the numerous forms 
of that species — which have for the most part been separated as specifically 
distinct — from Obi, Borneo, Palawan, Sooloo, New Britain, and the D’Entre- 
casteaux Islands. Count Salvadori (P. Z. S. 1878, 88) lays some sti’ess upon 
the presence in C. p)ectoralis of long recurved hairs sprouting from the forehead ; 
these, however, as pointed out antea, are also found in old examples — per- [ 
haps old males, or males in breeding-dress — of D. leucops, as also in D. bor- ^ 
neensis described by Sharpe in 1879. In Dicrurus hottentottus (L.) of Indo- 
China the hairs are developed to such an extent as to form a sort of crest. | 
These hairs, remarks Lord Tweeddale (Ibis 1868, 73), “are really the 
denuded shafts of a certain number of the frontal plumes. Under a lens the 
aborted rudiments of the lateral webs can be readily detected. Behind these 
denuded shafts are usually (in D. hottentottus) a number of elongated frontal , 
t 
