ALCYONE. 353 



(A) 0-87 X 077 inches; (B) 0-91 x 073 inches; (C) 0-85 x 079 inches; (D) 0-84 x 078 

 inches; (E) o'88 x 077 inches. A set of six taken by Mr. George Savidge at Copmanhurst, 

 in the Upper Clarence District, New South Wales, on the 20th November, 1900, measures:— 

 Length (A) o-88 x 073 inches ; (B) o-gi x 076 inches ; (0)0-92 x 076 inches; (D) 0-89 x 

 072 inches; (E) 0-82 x 073 inches ; (F) 0-87 x 073 inches. 



Young birds resemble the adults, but are much duller in colour, the central pair of tail 

 feathers are equal in length to the remainder, and are destitute of the attenuate elongations 

 as in the adult ; there is no blue streak below the black feathers on the sides of the face, the 

 feathers on the fore neck, breast and abdomen are very dull green, the central portion of which 

 is washed with blue, and there is only a small dull black patch, washed with blue, on the centre 

 of the lower throat. Wing yS inches. 



In New South Wales October and the four following months constitute the usual breeding 

 season of this species, but more eggs are usually laid in November. On Yandembah Station, 

 between the ist and 20th November, 1893, Mr. Charles Watson opened a great number of their 

 nesting places, which contained from one to five fresh eggs. During different seasons I have 

 obtained them on the Nepean, Namoi and Gwydir Rivers during the same month. 



Sub-order Halcyones, 



Family ALCEDINID^. 

 Sub-family ALCEDININ.zE. 



QenVLS .A.IjC~Z'OI>TIE, Swainson. 



Alcyone azurea. 



AZURE KINGFISHER. 

 Alcedo azurea, Lath., Ind. Orn., Suppl., p. xxxii. (1801). 



Alcyone az^irea, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. II., pi. 2.5 (1848) ; id., Hand-bk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., 

 p. 139 (1865) ; Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XVII., p. 168 (1892); id., Hand-1. Bds., 

 Vol. II., p. 52 (1900). 

 Alcyone diemene.nsis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1846, p. 19; id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., 

 p. 141 (1865). 

 Adult male — General colour above ultrartiarine, brighter on the rump and upper tail-coverts,- 

 wings blackish, some of the upper winy-coverls and the outer ivebs of the secondaries indistinctly 

 margined with dull ultramarine; on each side of the upper breast a large patch of ultramarine; 

 tail ultramarine ; throat and an oblong spot on each side of the neck tvhite tvashed ivith rufous; 

 remainder of the under surface ciniiamon-rufotis, darker on the loiver sides of the body, where there is 

 a slight lilac wash; bill black, brownish at the extreme tip; legs and feet dull orange; iris black. 

 Total h-ngtli in the flesh OS inches, tving 2-9, tail l-Jf., bill 1-65, tarsals O'oS. 

 Adult female — Tlie sexes are alike in plumage. 



DistribtUion — Queensland, New South Wales, \'ictoria, South Australia, Tasmania. 

 /-f^IIP: range of the Azure or River Kingfisher extends over the greater portion of the coastal 

 J- and contiguous mountain ranges and tablelands of Eastern and South-eastern Australia.. 

 Individual variation exists in this as in many other species, and which cannot always be attributed 

 to climatic causes. Generally it is in the depth of colouring in the under parts; as a rule the 

 farther north specimens are obtained the richer and darker they are, approaching a coppery hue. 

 In the present instance a single specimen in the Australian Museum collection from Tasmania, 

 K K 2 



