ORSlTIluLUaY. '3o3 



Famihi Alcedinidse. 



(Peiiig-nycu, (/iiicrie). 



CAitfiNEUTES ptJi.cnF.Li.rs, Hoi'sf. irnliieea to !Nrar(almii and Pcgii. 



C. amaliUs, Iluine (S.F. i. p. 47-1). 



C. amabilh, from North(!ni Pegu, is separatcil liy iruiiu', from its wniitiiig tlie rcil 

 collar so marked in Karen specimens and in some ti'om Malacca, Ijut which is often 

 absent in other Malaceau individuals. 



Pel.vrgopsis Burmaxnica, Sharpe. Teuasserim. Andamans. Pegu. Karen-ni. 



P. iNTERMEniA, Hume. iSUcobars. 



Intermediate between P. Fraseri of Java and P. leucocephaJa of Bengal. 



P. AMAUKOPiERA, Pearson. Tenasserim. Karen-ni. 



A species not usually found far removed beyond tlie tideway, thougli in India it 

 also haunts the Eastern Tarai. 



Halcton pileata, Bodd. Pegu. Jfartaban. Tenasserim. 



H. COROMAXDA, Lath. Martabau. Teuasserim. Andamans. 



This is a species more usually found near flic sea. 



H. eoxcRETA, Tem. Soutlicni Tenasserim. 



H. ATKiCAPiLLCS, Gmol. Audamaus. Xicobars (rare). 



H. OCCIPITALIS, Blyth. Kicobars. 



Davison was the first to describe the curious habit possessed by this bird, of 

 excavating its nest in ants' nests. " I found three nests on the island of Camorta, and 

 all of them were excavated in deserted ants' nests. These ants' nests arc generally 

 placed against the trunks of very large trees, but occasionally against those of the 

 coeoanut palms, at lieighls of from 4 to 20 feet from the ground, and vary from 12 to 

 30 inches in diameter, being composed, as I believe, of some sort of claj'; they are 

 extrenudy hard and ditficult to break. It is in the larger ants' nests that this king- 

 fisher's nt'st-holes are excavated. The tunnel, about 2 to 2.J inches in diameter, is in 

 the centre of the ant's nest, and goes in fur about (5 inches, where it terminates iu 

 a chamber about 7 inches iu diameter" (S.F. ii. p. 172). 



H. cni.oEis, Bodd. Martaban. Tenasserim. Andamans. 



H. Sjivrnensis, L. Universally distributed. Audamans. 



Saeropatis cnLORis, Bodd. Common along the coast. 



Ceyx tkidactyla, Pall. Pegu. Tenasserim. Andamans. 



Alcedo menintino, Horsf. Bankasun. Southern Tenasserim. 



A. Bengalensis, Gmel. Pegu. Andamans. Nicobars. 



A. Beavani, Wald. Martaban. Tenasserim. Andamans. 



A. nigricans, Blyth. Southern Tenasserim. 



A. ASIATICA, Swainson. Tenasserim. Andamans. 



Lord Walden considers A. Bcavani, Hume, a synonym of this species. It really, 

 however, matters little wdiether we distinguish an animal as a variety or race, or 

 distinct species, so long as we do not hamper ourselves with any preconceived notion 

 of the fixity of species, an idea certainly more strongly supported by Semitic tradition, 

 than by the study of nature. 



It is remarked by Mr. W. T. Blanfoi'd, lliat Pelarffopsis btinnannica, Huleijon 

 smijrnennis, and Alcedo letu/alcnsis, are appai-ently replac<>d in the Irtawaddy delta,, 

 where the water is salt, by P. amaurvptera, II. pileata, and A. asiatica. According 

 to Heifer, Alcedo beri/llina, Vieillot {bine, Horsfield), is also an inhabitant of the 

 Tenasserim provinces, but Blyth had never seen it even from the Malayan Peninsula. 

 The present, however, is one of the species which Heifer did procure. 



Ceryle KUDis, L. Martaban. Tenasserim. 



C. GUTTATA, Vig. Martaban. 



Writing of this species Hume, remarks that, contrary to the assertion of Sliarpe 

 and other authors, the sexes arc not identical in coloui-iug. The under wing coverts 



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