370 DACELONIN^. 



Fledgelings resemble the adults, but are much duller in colour on the upper parts, centre of 

 crown of the head and mantle blackish ; wings dull blue, all the upper wing-coverts and feathers on 

 the forehead broadly margined with pale ochreous-bufif ; all the under surface white, the feathers 

 on the chest having narrow dull blackish margins, sides of the body and the under tail-coverts 

 washed with ochreous-buff. Wing 3-1 inches. 



A pair of these birds breed regularly every season in a tree at the back of my house at 

 Roseville. On the loth November, 1901, I saw four young ones being fed by their parents at 

 the entrance of a hollow spout of a gum tree eighty feet from the ground. On the same day I 

 saw a Sacred Kingtisher, with a lizard in its bill, fly to the entrance of a burrow in a Termites' 

 nest, and heard the noise of young ones as the old bird disappeared in the mound. A brood of 

 four young ones left the same nesting-place on the gth November, 1900. 



October and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season in the neighbour- 

 hood of Sydney, fresh eggs being usually found about the end of October, and again at the latter 

 end of December, or early in January, and two broods being reared during the breeding season. 



Halcyon sordidus. 



MANGROVE KINGFISHER. 

 Halcyon sordidus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1842, p. 72 ; id, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. II., pi. 23, (1848); 

 Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XVII., p. 278 (1892): North, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. 

 Wales, Vol. VII., (Ser. 2nd) p. 395 (1892); Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds,, Vol, II., p. 60 (1900). 

 Adult male — Forehead dusky-broivn ; sinciput, crown of the head, nape, lesser, and median wing- 

 coverts and scapulars dull olive-green ; rump and upper tail-coverts greenish-blue ; greater-coverts and 

 quills blackish, the exposed portion ultramarine-blue; tail ultramarine-blue ; a loral streak whitish; 

 feathers around the eye, sides of face, and a broad line continuing around the crown of the head dull 

 black, followed by a broad white collar around the hind neck, which is separated from the dull olive- 

 green feathers of the mantle by an indistinct line of black; sides of neck and all the under surface and 

 imder tail-coverts -ivhite, some of the feathers on the sides of the breast narroivly fringed with black; bill 

 (ofskin)brorvnish-black; the basal half of the underside of the lower mandible yellowish-white; legs 

 and feet dark brown. Total length 9'3 inches, wing 4, tail o, bill I >J5, tarsus O-Go. 



Adult pemalr — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South .Vustralia, Oueensland. 



/T^HE Mangrove Kingfisher, exceeding all other Australian members of the genus //rt/cji'WJ 

 -L in size, inhabits the mangrove-lined mouths of the rivers and creeks of North-western 

 .\ustralia, the Northern Territory of South Australia, and Queensland ; its range also extends to 

 the Aru Islands and those of the Louisiade Group. It never ventures far inland, but is restricted 

 in its habitat to those estuarine areas and salt-water creeks and marshes of the coast which are 

 clothed with a dense growth of mangroves. In these secure haunts it obtains its food, which 

 consists principally of small fish and crustaceans. 



All the specimens in the Australian Museum collection are from the Brisbane River, and 

 Moreton Bay in South-eastern Queensland. 



While resident at Point Cloates, North-western Australia, Mr. Tom Carter sent me a skin 

 of this species for examination, and wrote: — "These birds are not uncommon about the beach at 

 Point Cloates from December until April. A bird was seen at a high sandstone cliff on the 

 15th June, and a pair of birds on the ist September. These are my only records for winter 

 months." 



