358 DACELONIN^. 



tree, and it contained four pearly-white eggs. Its habits, he informed me, appeared to be much 

 the same as those of Halcyon sancttis. The members of the " Chevert Expedition," fitted out by 

 the late Sir William Macleay, also obtained two specimens during their stay at Cape York in 1875. 

 A set of three eggs in Mr. G. A. Keartland's collection, taken by Mr. Bertie Jardine near 

 Somerset, on the 3rd December 1898, are nearly round in form, pure white, the shell being close- 

 grained, smooth and slightly lustrous. They measure: — Length (A) 1-04 x 0-87 inches; (B) 

 i-i X o'9 inches; (C) i x 0-87 inches. 



0-e2:i"aS ID.ii^OEIjO, Leach. 



Dacelo gigas. 



BROWN KINGFISHER. 

 Alcedogigas, Bodd., Tab). Pi. Enl., p. 40 (1783). 

 Dacelo giganlea, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. II., pi. IS (1848). 

 Dacelo gigas, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 122 (1865) ; North, Rec. Austr. Mus., Vol. II., 



p. 87 (1895) ; Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XVII., p. 204 (1892); id., Haiid-1. Bds., 



Vol. II., p. 55 (1900). 



Adult mai.k — Forehead aiid crow7i of the head broicn mottled jrilli. riifoiis, and extending in a 

 hlackish-brown stripe down the centre of the head ; nape brown: lores and ear-coverts dark broiun; 

 sides of the head and Ibind neck ivhite, forming a broad collar; basal half of the primaries /vliite, 

 apical portion blackish; outermost secondaries blackish-brown, edged on their inner webs and tips 

 with white, and slightly washed with bluish-green towards the tips of their outer webs ; innermost 

 secondaries and scapulars brown, the median series tipped with silvery-blue ; lower portion of the back 

 dull white barred with brown; feathers of the rump dusky at the base crossed with dull white and 

 blackish-brown mottled with rufous, and largely lipped with pale greenish-blue ; upper tail-coverts and 

 tail rufous, barred with black, the centre tail feathers slightly tipped with white, and increasing in 

 extent to the outermost feathers, which have their apical half white, and the cross-bars gradually 

 decreasing in width towards the tip; cheeks and all tlie under surface dull white ; upper mandible 

 blackish-brown, the hooked lip whitish-Iiorn colour, lower mandible pale jieshy-horn colour, sides of 

 base blackish-broivn ; legs and feet very pale dingy greenish-yellow, almost white; iris rich dark brotrn. 

 Total length in the flesh 17-5 inches, wing 8-6, tail 6'25, bill 3-o, tarsus 0'95. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage lo the male, but with more rufous on the crown of the head 

 and having a rufous marking at the sides of the iiape, connecting it ivith the lips of the ear-coverts. 



Distribution — Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia. 

 /■ |(^HE range of the present species e.xtends as far north in Queensland as the Endeavour 

 -L River, Mr. Robert Hislop, Junr., informing me that he had observed it at Marton, near 

 Cooktown, his brother, Mr. Frank Hislop, sending me a note of its breeding in the Bloomfield 

 River District, and Mr. A. F. Smith states that it is more common at Cairns than its more 

 brilliantly plumaged ally Dacelo leachi. It is freely distributed throughout Southern Queensland, 

 New South Wales and Victoria; it is also found in the south-eastern portion of South Australia. 

 It has been introduced into Western Australia and Tasmania, Mr. G. A. Keartland noting it 

 between Fremantle and Perth, * and I observed it, much to my surprise, on Mount Wellington, 

 near Hobart, in December 1906. 



In a number of specimens now before me from different parts of Eastern Australia, the 

 example with the purest white under surface and broadest collar on the hind neck, is an adult 

 male procured by Messrs. E. J. Cairn and Robt. Grant, at Cairns, Queensland, and the one with 

 ' Trans. Roy. Soc. S. A., Vol. XXII . p. 171 (189S). 



