24 BULLETIN 98, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



provinces; south through the Malay Peninsula to the Mergui Archi- 

 pelago and Malacca. 



6. Ceyx trldactylus macrocarus, new subspecies. 



Subspecijic characters. — Similar to Ceyx tridactylus trldactylus, but 

 decidedly larger; the bluish black forehead spot at base of culmen 

 much smaller, often wanting; and the pileum of a somewhat darker 

 ferruginous. 



Description.— Type, adult male, No. 178555, U.S.N .M.; Great 

 Nicobar Island, Nicobar Islands, March 14, 1901; Dr. W. L. Abbott. 

 Pileum and cervix ferruginous, strongly washed posteriorly and 

 laterally with magenta; forehead on each side of the culmen with a 

 spot of ochraceous buff; a conspicuous spot of pale canary yellow on 

 each side of the neck; above this a spot of hyacinth blue; back 

 hyaciuth blue; scapulars and wings black, the scapulars, lesser and 

 middle coverts broadly tipped with the same blue; the quills broadly 

 margined interiorly except at tips with tawny ochraceous; bend of 

 wing orange rufous; rump and upper tail-coverts magenta over 

 orange rufous; tail ferruginous, the central feathers tipped with 

 fuscous; chin white; rest of lower parts, including the lining of the 

 wings, rich lemon yellow, paler on the throat, richer on the breast 

 and sides of body; sides of head and neck the same but tinged with 

 tawny; bill bright red. 



Measurements. 1 — Wing, 56-62 (average, 58.4) mm.; tail, 22-27.5 

 (24.3); exposed culmen, 33-35.5 (34.7); tarsus, 8-10 (9.1). 



Geographic distribution. — Nicobar Islands; ? Andaman Islands. 



All the names that have been applied to Ceyx tridactylus 2 refer 

 without doubt to the mainland form. All our specimens are from 

 the Island of Great Nicobar, but Ceyx tridactylus macrocarus doubtless 

 occurs on also other islands of the Nicobar group. I have seen no 

 specimens of Ceyx tridactylus from the Andaman Islands, but the 

 species occurs there, and will probably prove to be of the Nicobar 

 form. There seem to be no differences in color, other than those 

 already mentioned, between Ceyx tridactylus macrocarus and Ceyx 

 tridactylus tridactylus. The small size of the blackish forehead spot 

 is very noticeable in the former, so far as our specimens go; in six of 

 our ten birds this marking is either absent or reduced to insignifi- 

 cance, while in none of the others is it so large as is usual in Ceyx 



1 No separation of males and females is here made, because their dimensions are practically alike. 



2 These are: 



Alcedo tridactyla Pallas, Spicel. Zool., fasc. 6, 1769, p. 10, pi. 2, fig. 1 (Surinam [!]; locality wrong; I desig- 

 nate Bengal, India, as typo-locality). 



Alcedo erytliaca Gmelin, Syst. Nat., vol. 1, pt. 1, 1788, p. 449 (Bengal, India). 



Alcedo purpurea Gmelin, Syst. Nat., vol. 1, pt. 1, 1788, p. 449 ( Pondichery, India). 



Ceyx luzonienais Stephens, in Shaw's Gen. Zool., vol. 13, pt. 2, 1825, p. 106 (new name for Alcedo tridac- 

 tyla Shaw, Gen. Zool, vol. 8, 1811, p. 104). 



Ceyx microsoma Burton, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1837 (Feb. 13, 1838) p. 89 (India Maderaspatana). 



Boddaert's Alcedo rubra (Tabl. Planch. Enlurn. d'llist. Nat., 1783, p. 48 [Madagascar!, is sometimes 

 quoted as a synonym of Ceyt tridactylus, but it is clearly the same as Ispidina madagascariensis (Linnaeus). 



