362 DACELONIN*. 



and White Fantails (Sauloprocta melaUuca), who had nested under the hood of one of our windows. 

 I often expected to see one or the other of the latter birds pay for their temerity with their lives, 

 but they persisted in mobbing and teasing the "Jacks," until they left the place. 



The nesting-place of Dacelo gigas, in a White Ant's mound on a tree, figured on Plate A. 13, 

 I found at Lindfield, on the 3rd October, 1898, while in company with Mr. C. G. Johnston and 

 Mr. D. Swift. It was about forty feet from the ground, and the latter, who climbed to it, secured 

 three partially incubated eggs, and I photographed the nesting-site on the following day. Where 

 the tree stood, at the present time is one of the most flourishing thoroughfares of this rising 

 suburb. On the 5th October, 190S, ten years later from the date of taking this set, Mr. F. A. 

 Shelley, at Roseville, pointed me out the nesting-place of D. gigns in the hollow limb of a gum- 

 tree in Bancroft Avenue, from which the previous season he had taken three eggs. In another 

 hollow branch on the opposite side of the tree Halcyon sanctiis was nesting. A month later this 

 tree was cut down while clearing the land for building purposes, and three recently hatched 

 young Dacelo gigas were destroyed. 



The tendency to partial or total albinism apparently exists more in this species than any 

 other Australian bird, judging by the number of examples represented in the Australian Museum 

 collection. A semi-albino adult female was received in the flesh in June 1895, f™""" ^^^- ^- J- 

 Parks of " Thirribir," Boggabri, New South Wales, who subsequently forwarded the following 

 note: — "The semi-albino Great Kingfisher I sent you was accidentally poisoned by eating mice 

 that had been destroyed by strychnine, and was found by one of my men. I had been protecting 

 this bird for some years, which used to feed at the door and nest in a tree close to the house, and 

 was very sorry when the poor fellow died ; at the same lime I was glad that it was found before 

 it was too far decayed to preserve as a ram avis." As the bird was in perfect plumage I took the 

 opportunity of describing it. The general colour above and below is pure white ; a spot in front 

 of the eye and a broad line extending from the gape to the ear-coverts dull rufous ; ear-coverts 

 rufous-brown with white shaft lines ; median portion of the lengthened crest feathers and an 

 indistinct nuchal spot, dull rufous; scapulars and interscapular region slightly washed with 

 brown ; the lower back faintly barred with brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts dull rusty-rufous, 

 the former indistinctly barred with silvery-blue, the latter with white ; tail white, two central tail- 

 feathers freckled with dull rufous on their basal portion, and irregularly barred with the same colour, 

 except at the tips ; remainder of the tail-feathers barred alternately with rufous and brown cross- 

 bars for three-fourths of their length, the bars decreasing in extent towards the outermost feathers, 

 where the rufous bars are entirely lost, and the brown bars become narrow zigzag lines, except 

 at the base ; primaries pale brown, white at the base ; secondaries pale brown, broadly edged 

 with white on their inner webs; bastard-wing, primary and greater wing-coverts brown, the 

 innermost series of the latter white ; median wing-coverts pale brown, the outermost series largely 

 tipped with white, and the innermost series with silvery-white ; lesser wing-coverts pale brown 

 with whitish tips ; axillaries and under primary-coverts white, narrowly and indistinctly barred 

 with dusky-brown ; upper mandible brown, the lower one fleshy-white ; iris rich reddish-brown ; 

 legs and feet pale yellowish-brown. Total length in the flesh 17-3 inches, wing 9, tail 7, culmen 

 2-45, tarsus 1-05. 



Of the albino specimens of Dacelo gigas in the Australian Museum collection, the finest 

 example was sent by an unknown donor from Berrima, New South Wales, in 1892. This 

 specimen has the entire plumage snow-white, with the exception of one or two of the inner and 

 concealed plumes of the ear-coverts, which are dark brown; bill dull yellowish-white, with a few 

 short patchy streaks of blackish-brown ; legs and feet yellow. In another albino specimen 

 obtained at Bowral, and received from the Hon. W. A. Long in i8go, the only trace of its normal 

 plumage is likewise in the concealed plumes of the ear-coverts, and in a few brown feathers 

 among the lesser wing-coverts. 



