IN WESTERN LIBERIA. 163 



and a young male (nestling) collected at Bavia, St. Pauls 

 River, and at Buluma, near the Fisherman Lake. 



My field determinations of this series having been Da- 

 celo malimhica for the specimens from the St. Paul , and 

 D. cinereifrons for those from the Fisherman Lake , I was 

 quite estonished, when coming home, to find not the least 

 difference between them. So I was obliged to compare them 

 more carefully with the collections of the two species in 

 our Museum , united by Dr. Hartlaub under the epithet of 

 H. cinereifrons , by Mr. Sharpe and others after him under 

 that of H. malimbica, but by Prof. Schlegel, in his » Re- 

 vue de la collection des Alcedines" considered to be two 

 different species. 



Prof. Schlegel based his Dacelo cinereifrons upon its lar- 

 ger size, its generally paler blue color, especially that of 

 the chest, which he calls »un beau vert aigue-marine" in 

 D. malimhica , and , last not least , upon the habitat , as 

 he writes : >^ Notez que cet oiseau {cinereifrons) n'a pas été 

 observe a la Cote d'or." And the material, then at his 

 disposition , entitled him to do so , as amongst his three 

 specimens of D. cinereifrons , there is only that from Bis- 

 sao , though quite similar in color , somewhat smaller than 

 the two others from the Senegal. 



My Liberian birds now seem to form a link between Prof. 

 Schlegel's D. cinereifroyis and D, malimhica , as they are per- 

 fectly according with D. cinereifrons in color , but with D. 

 malimhica and the already mentioned specimen from Bis- 

 sao , in size. Being sure that Prof . Schlegel , could he com- 

 pare the material now at hand, would be the first to unite 

 D. cinereifrons with malimhica , I cannot hesitate to unite 

 both species , like Mr. Sharpe did in his splendid Mono- 

 graph , under the name of Halcyon malimhica. 



As much as I am convinced of the identity of the two 

 mentioned forms , I yield to the opinion that Halcyon dryas 

 (Hartl.) is , like H. senegalensis , a mere local variety of H. 

 malimhica , restricted , since the Gold Coast specimens (Rio 

 Boutry , Pel) have turned out to be the true H. malimhica , 



Notes from the Ley den Miuseum, "Vol. VII. 



