DICRANOSTREPTUS MEGAR HYNCHUS

7
New-Ireland Drongo.
Edolius megarhynchus, Quoy et Gaimard, Voyage de l’Astrolal

Edolius intermedius, Lesson, Traité d’Orn. p. 380.
Dicrurus megarhynchus, Gray, Gen.

9, Zool. vol. i. p. 184, pl. 6.

Rete oF 286.—Bonap. Consp. Gen. Ay.
Guinea &c., p. 33.—Id. P. Z. S, 1861, p. 435.—Finsch, N
p. 287.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 119,

1p. 352.—Gray, Cat. Birds of New
eu-Guinea, p. 171.—Gray, Handl. B. i.
Dicranostreptus mezorhynchus, Jerdon, Birds of India i. p. 430, note

Dicranostreptus megarhynchus, Reichenb. Syst. T

, af. Ixxxviii, fig, 12.—Sclater, P. Z, §
of Birds, ill. p. 256. 3

1877.—Sharpe, Catalogue

Dissemurus megarhynchus, Tweeddale, Ibis, 1878, p. 79.

Tus large species of Drongo was described in 1830, by MM. Quoy and Gaimard, in their account of the
Zoology of the Voyage of the ‘Astrolabe.’ Unfortunately, the habitat of the species was given as Dorey,
New Guinea, a mistake which led to its being included in more than one list of New-Guinea birds. It has
also been recorded from the Ke Islands by Mr. Gray; but this is doubtless owing toa misprint (as the
Marquis of Tweeddale suggests), the locality being intended to apply to Dicrurus megalornis, which is confined
to the last-named group of islands, and the locality of which is omitted in the proper column of places
tabulated by Mr. Gray. In 1869, Dr. Sclater recorded it from the Solomon Islands; and more recently it
has occurred in the collections made by Mr. George Brown in New Ireland, Specimens are also contained
in the British Museum, which were presented by Captain Lambrick, R.N., who obtained them at Carteret
Harbour, New Ireland; and the species will probably be found to be an inhabitant of that island, and of the
Solomon group. Lord Tweeddale considers that it is a member of the genus Dissemurus, to which the
Indian and Indo-Malayan Racket-tailed Drongos belong; and if this is the case, its appearance in a truly
Papuan habitat is interesting and at the same time remarkable. The extraordinary length of the tail and the
absence of a true racket, which is one of the characters of Dissemurus, taken in connexion with the locality
inhabited by the species, induce me to consider it generically distinct, and I therefore follow Dr. Sclater and
Mr. Sharpe in its nomenclature.

The following description is taken from the ‘ Catalogue of Birds’ of the latter author —

Above blue-black, with a very slight steel gloss on the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts ; head and sides
of neck metallic steel-purple, the feathers on the latter elongated and somewhat lanceolate ; frontal ae
lores, and sides of face dull purplish black ; under surface of body dusky purplish black, with ae
tips of glossy green on some of the feathers of the throat and chest; under Ma Bae a ae
the breast ; wings above dull glossy steel-green ; quills purplish black, the cot . a
green, not so metallic as the coverts ; tail-feathers purplish black, glossed with metallic s oad ae :
adly on the centre ones, the outermost feather elongate

outer edge of both webs, more distinctly and bro ue Or
t Total length 20-5 inches, culmen 1°5, wing

and twisted in an inward curl at the tip; bill and feet black.
7, tail 6, tarsus 1-05.
The specimen figured (of the natural size) in the

and was kindly lent to me by Dr. Sclater.

reorge Brown fr Jew Ireland
Plate was sent by Mr. George Brown from N and,

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