364 



DACELONIN.E. 



In the " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," " Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe includes 

 Northern Australia from Cape York to Port Darwin and Port Essington, in the range of Dacelo 

 leachii. It must be remembered, however, that the types of this species were obtained at Broad 

 Sound, Shoalwater Bay and Keppel Bay, which are all in the South Central Coastal Districts 

 of Eastern Queensland, and adult specimens from these parts are destitute of the buff wash, 

 which are typical of D. cervina, and of examples procured at Cape York, Port Essington, and 

 Port Darwin in Northern Australia. 



The habits and food of Leach's Kingfisher are precisely similar to those of the preceding 

 species. There is, however, although equally peculiar, a very great difference in its notes. 

 When I first heard them shortly after day-break, I truly mistook them for the short guttural 

 bark of a dog, or of a dog with a bone in its throat, but instead of, as I thought, proceeding from 

 a fine Irish Setter the late Mr. Neville Cayley had in his possession, it came from a caged pet 

 Dacelo leachii, and one that frequently formed the subject of his water-colour paintings. 



Mr. Bertie Hislop informs me that it is fairly common at Cooktown, and Messrs. Lamrock 

 and Robinson record in " The Ibis" t adult and immature birds procured by Mr. E. A. Olive in 

 the same locality. 



Mr. Frank Hislop writes me : — " Dacelo leachii is not numerous in the Bloomfield River 

 District, but they are more plentiful further inland. They live on grasshoppers and other large 

 insects; also on small lizards." 



Dr. \V. Macgillivray sends me the following note: — " In the Cloncurry District, Northern 

 Queensland, Dacelo leachii nests in October, and like other Kingfishers digs out a hole for itself in 

 a rotten tree, or occupies one that has been previously dug out." 



Messrs. E. J. Cairn and Robert Grant obtained this species while collecting on behalf of the 

 Trustees of the Australian Museum in North-eastern Queensland, and the latter has given me 

 the following notes: — "Dacelo leachii we found in scattered pairs, in the open forest country between 

 Cairns and Double Island, but on one occasion I saw six congregated together on a large 

 gum tree close to the beach, two of which I secured. They usually pour forth their weird and 

 undescribable notes in the early morning and again just about dusk. During the many months 

 we spent upon the mountains I only saw one pair in an open forest patch known as Peterson's 

 Pocket. The stomachs of the birds examined contained small lizards, grubs, grasshoppers and 

 other insects." 



From Ripple Creek, Herbert River, Mr. J. A. Boyd wrote me : — "On the 8th November, 

 1894, the blacks brought me two nearly fledged young of Dacelo leachii," and again on the 5th 

 March, 1897, " I saw to day a couple of Dacelo leachii well able to fly, but still having the nest note." 



The preceding descriptions of Leach's Kingfisher are taken from a pair of specimens in 

 breeding plumage, in the Australian Museum collection, procured by Mr. H. G. Barnard, at 

 Bimbi, Duaringa, Queensland, on the 5th October, 1906. The birds were shot at the nesting- 

 place, from which three eggs were taken, and all were forwarded to me, together with the following 

 note: — "Dacelo leachii is not nearly so plentiful in these parts as D. gigas, and is a. much shyer 

 bird. It chiefly breeds in hollow spouts in trees, the length of the hole from the entrance to 

 where the eggs are laid being from one to two feet, though it occasionally uses the White Ant's 

 nests built on trees. The eggs are usually three, rarely four in number for a sitting; I once 

 watched a pair of these birds for half an hour feeding their young, and to judge from the following 

 their diet is frequent and varied — a tree snake about eighteen inches long, a frilled lizard nearly a 

 foot long, two large grasshoppers, and a large grey spider ; as this was in half an hour, what would 

 the amount be for a day ? The female does the hatching, the male feeding her the whole time. 

 The breeding season commences about the middle of August and lasts until the end of November." 



Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XVII., p. 206 (1892). f Ibis, 1900, p. 639. 



