472 ALCEDINIDZ. 
Fam, ALCEDINID. 
The members of this family are spread over the tropical and temperate regions of 
the globe, by far the majority of the species occurring in the Austro-Malayan and 
Papuan subregions—India, Africa, and Australia being fairly represented. America, 
both north and south, with its vast river-systems, which one would have thought 
would have maintained an immense variety of Kingfishers, is only tenanted by a single 
genus, shared with the Ethiopian and Indian regions, and about ten or eleven species 
and subspecies. 
Mr. Sharpe, who has paid great attention to this family, and has published not only 
an illustrated Monograph of it, but also the portion of the ‘Catalogue of Birds in the 
British Museum’ containing an account of the Alcedinide, divides the family into two 
subfamilies—the Alcedinine and Dacelonine. ‘Twenty genera are included in these 
groups, and these again contain about 200 species and “subspecies.” Only one of the 
genera, Ceryle (belonging to the Alcedinine), is found in America, one species having 
a wide range throughout the northern continent, the rest being South-American birds 
spreading into Central America and Mexico, and in some cases beyond these limits 
into the frontier States of North America. 
CERY LE. 
Ceryle, Boie, Isis, 1828, p. 316; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvii. p. 107. 
Streptoceryle, Bp. Consp. Vol. Anis. p. 10 (1854). 
With the exception of Ceryle alcyon, which is a North-American species, all the 
American members of Ceryle belong to the southern continent, and range northwards 
through Central America and Mexico. In the Old World we find Ceryle rudis and its 
close ally C. varia in the countries bordering the Eastern Mediterranean and thence 
eastwards to India; €. dugubris in India, China, and Japan; and the fine large 
C. maxima and its ally C. sharpw over the greater part of the African continent. 
The comparatively long tail of the species of Ceryle distinguishes them from all 
Kingfishers except Pelargopsis, which are again distinguished by their very robust bills. 
a. Corpus supra lete schistaceum haud nitidum. 
1. Ceryle aleyon.” 
The Kingfisher, Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carol. i. p. 69, t. 69 (1781) '. 
The American Kingfisher, Edwards, Nat. Hist. Birds, iii. p. 115, t. 115 (1750). 
Alcedo aicyon, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 180 (1766) *. 
Ceryle alcyon, Moore, P. Z.S. 1859, p. 53*; Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 131°; Scl. P. Z. S. 1859, 
p. 367°; 1860, p. 252°; Lawr. Ann. Lyc. N.Y. vii. p.318°; ix. p.118°; Mem. Bost. Soc. 
