340 BULLETIN- 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



age that the red underside is assumed." As has been noted above, the 

 red begins to appear in the postjuvenal molt, so it appears that the 

 reason for the discrepancy between Van Someren's account of the 

 plumage sequence and mine is due to the fact that Van Someren 

 mixed Juvenal and year-old birds. 



The postjuvenal molt is complete; the tail molt is centrifugal. 



Aside from the specimens collected, Mearns noted this trogon at 

 the following places : Aletta, March 7-13, 2 seen ; Bodessa and Sagon 

 River, May 19 to June 3, 7 birds ; Meru and Kilindini, August 9-10, 

 10 seen. 



Order CORACIIFORMES 

 Family ALCEDINIDAE 



CERYLE RUDIS RUDIS (Linnaeus) 



Alcedo riidls Linnaeus, Sj'St. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, p. 116, 175S : Egypt (from 

 Hasselquist). 



Specimens collected: 



Two males, Sadi Malka, Ethiopia, January 28, 1912. 



One female, Athi station, Uganda Railway, Kenya Colony, Sep- 

 tember 1, 1912. 



A series of 40 specimens from various parts of Africa and Asia 

 Minor exhibits considerable size variation, but nothing of geo- 

 graphical or racial significance. The following are the size limits 

 of this series : 



Males.— Wing 128-144; tail 70-80.5; culmen from base 50-02 mil- 

 limeters. 



Females. — Wing 130-43; tail 71-80; culmen from base 54-63 mil- 

 limeters. 



Hartert ^'^ writes that South African birds may be found to aver- 

 age larger than those from the rest of the continent in which 

 case Strickland's name varia would be available for them. However, 

 the largest specimen examined is not from South Africa, but from 

 Tanganyika Territory, and the few South African birds seen are 

 not particularly large. Gyldenstolpe °^ has also gone into this mat- 

 ter and finds that southern birds can not be separated from more 

 northern ones. 



This kingfisher is entirely piscivorous and its distribution is ac- 

 cordingly interrupted by arid, streamless regions. It is widely dis- 

 tributed in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somaliland, and Kenya Colony (to 

 consider only the area represented by the present collection) but is 

 not found away from water. During the rainy season when many 



t^VOg. pal. Fauna, vol. 2, p. 878. 



'■■ Kuiiijl. Sv. Vet. Akad. Ilandlsr., 191^1. !>. iT.'.. 



