The Klng-crow. BIRDS. The Umbrella Bird 
339 
bits towards any corvine intruders on its place of abode. 
As soon as these make their appearance, tlie King-crow 
attacks them with great clamour, following them per- 
tinaciously, and pouncing down upon them from time 
to time. The food of this bird consists of insects, and 
he may be seen looking out for these from a hedge or 
bush, or some similar slight elevation, or even from the 
backs of cattle and sheep when grazing in a field. On 
observing the stirring of an insect in the herbage below 
him, he instantly darts down, seizes his prey, and 
flies up with it to his perch, where he devours it 
at his leisure and then looks out for more. He also 
captures winged insects in the air, and, in company 
with other birds, is a constant attendant at the issuing 
of the winged termites from their nests, an occasion 
which furnishes a rich feast. The note of this bird is 
described as a sort of crow or chuckle. Its flight is 
undulating, and not very rapid, except when in pursuit 
of a crow, or some other enemy. Its nest is composed 
of grass, twigs, and roots, carelessly put together, and 
contains from three to five eggs, of a white colour, with 
pale bromi or purplish spots. 
The King-crow is ten inches in length, of which, 
however, about half is made up by the long forked 
tail. It is a slender and graceful bird of a black 
colour. Several nearly allied species inhabit India, 
and have much the same habits as the common King- 
crow. Other species occur in Africa, and one, the 
Spangled Drongo {Dicrurus hrncteatus), in the 
northern part of Australia. 
THE PARADISE DRONGO {Edolius paradiseus), ano- 
ther Indian species, is of a blue-black colour, with 
the head crested, and the two outer feathers of the 
tail much elongated, forming two long naked stalks, 
terminated by small palettes formed of barbs. This 
beautiful bird is abundant in the lofty jungles of 
AVestern India, where it is generally seen in small 
parties, and like the common King-crow, often pur- 
sues crows and birds of prey, and chases them from 
its haunts. Its food consists principally of large 
coleopterous insects, which it usually catches in the same 
way as the common King-crow ; it also snaps up flying 
insects in the air, or snatches them from a branch. 
The note of this species is very peculiar, consisting of 
two parts, the first a sort of harsh chuckle, and the 
second a singular metallic sound, something like the 
creaking of a heavy wheel. It has other notes, and is 
said by the Hindoos to imitate the notes of all other 
birds ; whence it has been called by them the Huzar 
Dmtan, or “ Bird of a Thousand Tales.” 
THE BARE-NECKED FRUIT-CROW {Gymnoderus 
f<£tidm.) We conclude the family of the Chatterers 
with a singular series of American species, which 
exhibit so much analogy with the Crows, that by 
some ornithologists they have even been placed in 
that family of conirostral birds. The type of this 
small group is the Bare-necked Fruit-crow of Cayenne, . 
a bird about the size of a pigeon, which does not 
appear to be very common in its native country, and 
the habits of which are almost unknown, except that it 
it said to feed principally upon fruits. This singular 
bird has a moderately long and stout bill, of a whitish 
colour, with the tip nearly black ; the groove in which 
the nostrils are placed, is filled up and concealed by a 
thick covering of small velvet-like feathers, which, with 
the similar plumes of the head and upper part of the 
neck, are black. The skin of the neck is naked, with 
the exception of a few very minute black feathers, 
which are scattered here and there upon its surface; 
the plumage of the body is black, the wing-coverts 
and tertials bluish ash-colour, and the tail feathers 
black. 
THE BALD-HEADED FRUIT-CROW {Gymnoceplialm 
calvus), which is also an inhabitant of Cayenne, is 
about the size of a crow, and has the upper part of 
the head bare of feathers, from which the negroes of 
Cayenne have given it the name of the Oiseau-mon- 
pere. The general colour of the plumage is olive, 
with a greenish tint on the upper, and a reddish tint on 
the lower surface ; the wings are brown, and the tail 
blackish. Scarcely anything is known of the habits 
of this bird ; it is supposed to live principally upon 
fruits. 
THE UMBRELLA BIRD {Cephalopterus ornatus) — fig. 
112 — is perhaps one of the most extraordinary of birds, 
at least as regards the singular ornaments with which it 
is provided. It is about the size of a crow, and, as the 
whole of its plumage is of a deep black colour, it has 
a good deal of the corvine character in its aspect. But 
its head is adorned with a large and spreading crest, 
which appears as if intended by nature to serve as a 
parasol to keep the light from the eyes of the bird ; it 
is at least as large in proportion as the articles com- 
monly carried by ladies for that purpose. Mr. Wallace, 
who observed the bird in its native haunts, gives the 
following description of this singular ornament: — “The 
crest,” he says, “is perhaps the most fully-developed 
and beautiful of any bird known. It is composed of 
long, slender feathers, rising from a contractile skin on 
the top of the head. The shafts are white, and the 
plume glossy blue, hair-like, and curved outwards at 
the tip. When the crest is laid back, the shafts form 
a compact white mass, sloping up from the top of the 
head, and surmounted by the dense hairy plumes. 
Even in this position it is not an inelegant crest ; but it 
is when it is fully opened that its peculiar character is 
developed. The shafts then radiate on all sides from 
the top of the head, reaching in front beyond and below 
the tip of the beak, which is completely hid from view. 
The top then forms a perfect, slightly elongated dome 
of a beautiful shining blue colour, having a point of 
divergence rather behind the centre, like that in the 
human head. The length of this dome from front to 
back is about five inches, the breadth from four to four 
and a half inches.” As if this remarkably beautiful 
crest was not sufficient to distinguish the bird amongst 
its fellows, it is also furnished with a second singular 
ornament, nothing resembling which is to bo found in 
the whole series of birds. “This,” to borrow Mr. 
Wallace’s words again, “ is a long cylindrical plume of 
feathers depending from the middle of the neck, and 
either carried close to the breast, or puffed out and 
hanging down in front. The feathers lap over each 
other, scale-like, and are bordered with fine metallic 
blue. On examining the structure of this plume, it is 
found not to be composed of feathers only growing 
