77 
Dicruridae and their Arrangement. 
subspecies of Buchanga. “ B. ccerulescens ^ Holds worthy nec 
Linn/^ is added as a synonym. Mr. Holdsworth included the 
Linnsean species in his list (P. Z. S. 1872, p. 439) on the autho¬ 
rity of Mr. Layard, who states (Ann. & Mag. N. H. ser. 2, 
xiii. p. 129) that he procured one or two specimens of D. C(Bru- 
lescens at Point Pedro (the extreme north of Ceylon), a very 
likely locality for this Indian species. Mr. Sharpe, on the 
authority of Capt. Legge, gives as its range the wjiole east 
of Ceylon and central province, eastern district.^^ B. 
insularis is introduced by Mr. Sharpe as a subspecies of 
No. 6. B. ceerulescens; but when writing on No. 7. B. leuco- 
pygialis, a species very distinct from B. ccerulescens, Mr. 
Sharpe says, very similar to B. insularisy if, indeed, really 
separable.^^ Of which of the two very distinct species, B. cceru- 
lescens or B. leucopygialis, is B. insularis then a subspecies ? 
And why should the species obtained at Point Pedro by Mr. 
Layard, and identified by him as belonging to the continental 
species, B. ccerulescenSy be considered by Mr. Sharpe to belong 
to his new subspecies? We shall not be very far wrong if 
we reduce B. insularis to a synonym of B. leucopygialis, and 
if we continue to retain, on Mr. Layard’s authority, B. cceru- 
lescens as an inhabitant of, or migrant to. North Ceylon. 
Buchanga waldeni is, by the formation of its massive bill, 
closely allied to Dicrurus forficatus ; and through it Mr. 
Sharpe passes to the latter species, which he keeps separate 
under Edolius, Cuv. D. forficatus is also the type of Reichen- 
bach’s genus Brongo (Syst. Av. t. Ixxxviii.), a title which is 
omitted in the synonymy of the genus. 
. Bissemuroides andamanensis and B. dicruriformis. —These 
are the titles adopted for two races of a, species, the first an 
inhabitant of the Andamans, the other of Great Coco and 
Table Islands. The two races merely differ in size, the 
latter being somewhat the largest. Those who regard an 
excess of a few tenths of an inch in the principal dimensions 
of birds of this size, or of a few grains in the weight, as con¬ 
stituting specific and differentiating characters, will follow 
Mr. Sharpe and keep these two birds apart; for he admits B. 
dicruriformis into the Catalogue as a distinct subspecies of 
