365 



From Mr. H. G. Barnard's notes it will be seen that the usual nesting-place of Dacelo kachii 

 is in a hollow spout or hole in a limb of a tree, but it seldom burrows into a White Anfs nest on 



a tree. 



The e--s are usually three, sometimes four in number for a sitting, rounded oval m form, pure 

 white the stell being close-grained, smooth and slightly lustrous. A set of three in the Australian 

 Museum collection, taken by Mr. H. G. Barnard, at Bimbi, Duaringa, Queensland, on the 5th 

 October, 1906, measures :-Length (A) 1-95 x I'S '"ches; (B) 1-97 x i^J '"ches ; (C) 1-94 x 

 I '47 mches. 



Although this species is smaller, their eggs are typically larger than those of Dacelo gtgas. 



\u-ust and the three following months constitute the breeding season in the lower Central 

 Districts of Queensland, but at Ripple Creek in the North-eastern portion of that State, Mr. J. A. 

 Boyd noted recently fledged young from November until the end of February. 



The Fawn-breasted Kingfisher Dacelo cernna described and figured by Gould m his folio 

 edition of the Birds of Australia,* is only a geographical variation, or subspecihcally distinct 

 from the preceding species D. leaclm. In his original description Gould remarks:-'' The 

 northern and north-western portions of Australia constitute the true habitat of this species, but 

 in his "Handbook to the Birds of Australia" t omits Northern Australia, although he states 

 "specimens of it have formed a part of every collection made at Port Essington." Dacelo rervma 

 may be distinguished by its smaller size, fulvous wash to the collar on the hind neck, and fulvous- 

 buff under parts. An adult male measures :-Total length 147 inches, wing 7, tail 5, bill 2-4, 

 tarsus I. Wing-measurement of adult female 7-5 inches. 



Specimens in the Australian Museum collection procured by the late Mr. Alexander Morton 

 at Port Essington, in February 1879, and by Mr. H. W. Christie at Point Charles in April 1908, 

 in the Northern Territory of South Australia, are typical D cervina. The subspecific distinction 

 accorded to the northern and north-western race does not hold good in many instances, and 

 intermediate forms occur. Specimens from Derby, North-western Australia, collected by Mr. 

 E J Cairn, and a male and female from the same locality, received from the Perth Museum, are 

 except for their slightly smaller size, and in the former a washed-out appearance, almost similar 

 to the specimens of D. leachii obtained at Cairns and Cooktown in North-eastern Queensland. 

 An adult male and female procured by Mr. E. H. Saunders on Kurratha Station, thirty-six miles 

 south-west of Roeburne, North-western Australia, are larger than examples from Port Darwm 

 and Port Essington, and are futhermore distinguished by the very narrow brown streaks down 

 the centre of the feathers on the crown of the head, and have a broad white collar on the hind 

 neck, the upper part slightly washed with pale creamy-buff, the throat white, the wing-coverts of 

 a pale silvery-blue, remainder of the under surface creamy-buff with very faint and narrow wavy 

 transverse brown barrings, the wing-measurement being respectively 7-6 and 7-8 inches. 



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

 Cape York in the habitat of Dacelo cervina. I agree, however, with Dr. Ernst Hartert in 

 " Novitates Zoological," j in regarding specimens from Cape York and the Gulf of Carpentaria 

 as intermediate between D. leachii and D. cervina. 



Relative to this northern and north-western form, Mr. H. G. Barnard writes me as follows :- 

 " While in the Northern TerritoiTO^SouthAus^^ 



"T^uid, Bds. Austr., foi. voi.Ti., pi. 20 (184b.) r5o,iid:H^ndbkrM;:iusir::\^dT7^^^7u8i^)T^ 



: Vol. XVII., p 208 (1892). § Nov. Zool., Vol. XII., p. 214 (1905) 



Nt)2 



