400 
DIS8EMUEUS PARADISEUS. 
are more lengthened than before and pointed at the tips ; under tail-coverts and under wing-coverts both with 
white terminal spots; 
At each succeeding stage the shafts of the racket-feathers become more denuded and the crest lengthens ; the spots 
on the low er tail-coverts finally disappear, but one or two always remain on the under wing-coverts. 
Obs. The Ceylonese Eacket-tailed Drongo constitutes a race in which the racket-feathers are almost constantly smaller 
than those from any of the localities in the wide range of this species. It may, I think, safely be laid down as a 
rule that the mam^num length of these feathers in our adult birds is about equal to the minimum in the same 
from Malabar, Eurmah, Tenasserim, and Siain. This, at least, is the result of an examination of all the material 
at my disposal in England. In adult examples in the British Museum from Travancore, Malabar Moalmaza 
and Shenogah, the length by which the racket-feathers exceed the penultimate varies from 7-0 to 9-0; and 
I notice that Mr. Hume gives the measurement of the entire feather of a Travancore specimen collected bv 
Mr. Bourdillon at 18-75 inches. The racket in these birds is of different shape from the Ceylonese ; it is of 
peater length in the first place, and again longer in proportion to the breadth of the web ; as a rule, likewise the 
basal part of the web slopes off to the shaft beyond the tip of the penultimate. The wings also attain a greater 
eugth than in the island forms, 6-3, 6-4, 6-6 inches being some of the measurements recorded by Mr. Hume in 
his exhaustive article contained in the ‘Birds of Tenasserim.’ In fuUy adult specimens fi-om South India the 
crest resembles that of our old birds ; but in the different stages of immaturity I observe that it bears a different 
character. The crest in the young bird is less developed : an example in the British Museum with the racket well 
formed, and a bare shaft of 2 inches in length, has no more crest than a Ceylonese D. lophorhinus ; in another bird 
from Travancore the anterior portion of the crest is hushj/ and erect ; in another, still older, from Moalmaza, the 
whole crest projects forward in a long tuft (this is not from the making-up of the skin), the posterior portion of 
which stands up to a height of 0-9 inch above the culmen. In all immature birds that I have examined the 
prevailing characteristic is that the anterior feathers of the crest are longer than the posterior ones. ' 
I find, on examination of the Tenasserim examples in the British Museum, and in the collection lately sent home by 
Mr. Hume, that the length of the racket-feathers averages the same as in the South-Indian, exceeding the penul- 
timate from 7-0 to 9-5 inches ; the racket is likewise of the same character, recurring more* inwards than in 
our bird. The Siamese birds vary much in length of the racket-feather. One in the British Museum exceeds the 
penultimate by nearly 10 inches ; another, however, in the Swinhoe collection, approaches nearest of all that I 
have examuied to the Ceylonese form. Its measurements are : — wing 6-1 inches ; outer tail-feather 12-76, exceeding 
the penultimate by 6-9 ; racket 3-0 ; bill to gape 1-3 (shorter than Ceylonese examples as a rule) ; crest precisely 
the same. It is on the evidence of this specimen, coming from the opposite extreme of this bird’s wide range 
coupled with the fact of the species being so variable, that I do not keep the Ceylonese form distinct as a sub- 
species under Mr. Sharpe’s title ceylonensis. More extended obseriatioiis than I have been able to make, and a 
greater series of examples, are both necessary in order to prove whether the extreme limit of the length'of the 
racket-feather and the size of the racket itself as given above arc correct. ' “ 
In the north of the island there are sometimes to be found very singular and abnormal examples of this bird with the 
crest tolerably well developed and recurving over the forehead, but with the outer tail-feather intermediate 
between that of D. lophorhums and a mere nestling T>. paradiseus. I obtained a specimen in the depths of the 
forest between Kanthelai and Hurulle tanks, and another in some magnificent timber-jungle at Umerao-olla on 
the Dambulla and Kiiruuegala Road ; a third exists in the Layard collection at Poole. The web is entire, i-Lurving 
quite inwards at the tip, whereas that of a young nestling even, of the ordinary form, has a recess or gap, as shown 
m the woodcut, p. 402 ; furthermore, one of the specimens is quite adult, having no spots on the under tail-coverts. 
aving met with but these examples, I feel inclined to look upon them as an abnormal form of D. paradiseus. 
If, however, additional specimens come to hand, eventually it may prove to be a distinct species; and for it I would 
then propose the name of B. intermedins. 
Distribution. This showy bird is chiefly an inhabitant of the dry region of ^ Ceylon, from the Vaiini to 
Puttalam on the west side, extending through all the eastern portion of the island and flat juno-le-clad country 
betw-een Haputalc and the south-east coast up to the slopes of the Morowak-Korale ranges. In the latter region 
particularly in forest on the banks of rivers, and in most of the northern forests, it is very numerous, approaching 
* This is, of course, when the bare portion of the shaft near the racket is 
which alw-ays gives the racket the normal twist, provided it be not injured. 
pressed down into a horizontal position, 
