44 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



No. 104. Kandavu. Female. Eyes, bill, and legs black; stomach contained 

 insects.] 



This short-tailed Swallow comes nearest to Hirundo javanica, Sparrm. (Hirundo 

 domicola, Jerd.), but has a rather broader bill ; the underparts below the ferruginous 

 throat-portion are darker brownish ; and the tail-feathers want the white spot on the 

 inner web. I must mention, however, that in No. 45 the second right-hand tail-feather 

 shows a very small pale spot on the inner web. The sexes are alike. 



7. Colloccdia spodiopygia, Peale. 



Collocalia spodiopygia, Layard, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1877, p. 428, Fiji, habits; Finsch, Proc. 

 Zool. Soc, 1877, p. 730. 



[No. 93. Kandavu. Female. 

 No. 94. „ Male. 



Eyes, feet, and bill black ; stomach contained parts of insects. Shot August 6.] 

 The Fiji specimens look a little lighter from below than those from Tonga and the 

 Navigators'. 



8. Halcyon sacra, Gm. 



Todirham/phm vitiensis, Cass. 



Halcyon cassini, F. and H., Orn. Central- Polyn., p. 40. 



Halcyon sacra et Halcyon cassini, Layard, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1875, p. 427. 



Halcyon sacra, Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1877, p. 731. 



[No. 61. Kandavu. Male. Eyes and bill black. 



No. 95. „ „ Eyes black, feet greyish ; upper mandible black and 



margin of the under, rest of lower mandible pale red. Stomach contained a wasp and 

 parts of other insects. Shot August 6. 



No. 109. Kandavu. Male. Eyes and bill black. 



No. 110. „ „ .] 



The Fiji specimens are generally darker and of a more brilliant blue, the neck-collar 

 is washed with rufous, as are the sides of the vent and flanks, which in the Tonga birds 

 are, like the neck-collar, almost pure white. But these differences are in certain speci- 

 mens so indistinct that thereupon no specific characters can be based. Halcyon cassini, 

 Finsch and Hartl., with an ill-defined superciliary stripe, rests on individual differences 

 which are of no specific value. But I may remark that among a very large number of 

 specimens examined by me from the Friendly and Fiji Islands, I never met with one 

 having a white head showing only a blue vertical spot, as is represented in the right-hand 

 figure of Sharpe's plate of Halcyon sacra, which I think must still be kept separate as 

 Halcyon peal i, F. and H., from the Navigators'. In size the Fiji specimens are exactly 



