no.1657. KINGFISHER 0ENV8 RAMPHALCYON OBERHOLSER. f,r,9 



Islands, Borneo, Flores, Java, and Sumatra with its western outlying 

 islands. It is common and welJ distributed over this area, bui sep 

 arates into many local forms, of which at present fifteen seem to be 

 recognizable. As is the case with many oriental and Easl Indian 

 birds, the geographical distribution of these races presents several 

 interesting anomolies. For instance, Ramphalcyon c. intermedia, of 

 the Nicobar Eslands, is mos< closely allied to the Bornean form, and 

 separated from it by the totally dissimilar Malayan Ramphalcyon 

 c. malaccensis. Again, Ramphalcyon c. floresiana, from Flores, is 

 very much like Ramphalcyon c. malaccensis^ and very differenl from 

 the intervening Javan Ramphalcyon <■. capensis and Bornean /*'. c. 

 javana. Furthermore, both Ramphalcyon c. gurial and h'. c. bur- 

 manica much more nearly resemble Ramphalcyon c. simalurensis, 

 from Simalur Island, and Ramphalcyon c. isopteraf from the Pagi 

 Islands, than they do either the Malayan h\ c. malaccensis or Ram- 

 phalcyon c. cyanopU //..,. from northwestern Sumatra. Also the here- 

 inafter described Ramphalcyon c u hydrophilaf from Singapore and 

 Lingga Island-, is more like Ramphalcyon c. sodalis, from the Banjak 

 Islands, off the northwestern coast of Sumatra, than like the main- 

 land Sumatran Ramphalcyon c. cyanopteryx.* Other more local in- 

 stances are given In-low under Ramphalcyon c. nesoeca. a 



The kingfishers of this group have for long passed under the 

 generic name /'< la rgo psis Gloger; ■ but an examination of the original 

 diagnosis shows this name to be clearly a nomen milium there. It 

 is proposed in the following fashion: 



Mehrere andere wiirde man afltenfalls Storchschniibler (Pelargopsis) nennen 

 k' linen. Denn sowohl ihre, aocli grcisseren und bedeutend starkeren Schnabel, 

 die librigens noch nirgends aufgetrieben erscheinen, wie ihre dickeren Kopfe, 

 gleichen oiebr jenen der St»"rche. 



Xo specie- i^ mentioned, and even the common name "Storch- 

 schnabler" i- here used apparently for the first time, as by careful 

 search in the literature no previous mention of these birds a- " stork- 

 bills," or •• stork-billed kingfishers," has been broughl to light. Fur- 

 thermore, the diagnosis given by Gloger' is not certainly identifiable, 



for it is so brief and indefinite that it would ju-l a- well apply to 

 Vr, or even Dad I", a- to the bird- here under discussion : and we 



must therefore abandon Pelargopsis Gloger. The next available 

 genericname \'*>r the stork-billed kingfishers is Ramphalcyon Reichen 

 bach.' 

 The literature of this genus is not extensive, and consists chiefly 



of scattered reference- in faunal and systematic book- and paper-. 



"Seepage 671. b See page 676. "See page 677. * See page 674. 

 "Gem. Hand- and Hilfsb. Nat., I. 1842, p. 338. 

 t IIan.lt). Spec. One. 1851, p. L6. 



