Abstract
THE family Dicruridæ, or drongos, has its head-quarters in the oriental region, though there are a few species in the Ethiopian and Austro-Papuan regions. The drongos were placed by Sharpe and Hartert with the birds of paradise, but more recent writers, including Mayr, consider they are more nearly allied to the orioles. According to the author, the phylogeny of the family is fairly simple, and he has reduced the number of genera to two, Chaztœrhynchus with twelve tail feathers and Dicrurus with ten. Many of the characters used by former workers as generic characters, such as the shape and structure of the tail, shape of the bird and presence or absence of a crest, Mr. Vaurie finds are very variable and unsuitable. He considers the Papuan mountain drongo Chœtorhynchus papuensis the most primitive member of the family, and in the genus Dicrurus D. ludwigii and D. atripennis, both from Africa, are the least specialized.
A Revision of the Bird Family Dicruride
(Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History ; Vol. 93, Article 4.) By Charles Vaurie. Pp. 199–342. (Philadelphia, 1949.) 1.75 dollars.
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KINNEAR, N. Classification of the Drongos. Nature 164, 725 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164725b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/164725b0