128 ON THE CRESTED KINGFISHERS OF AFRICA. 
colour of their crests, and should any of our readers meet with 
these pretty little birds, they can easily tell the species by the 
following diagnosis :— 
Pe,” Beak black’... .. 22ers See eeeee we) On Orme 
B. Beak vermillion. 
a. COrest blue ..... Pirates ss 6 C. ceruleocephala 
b. Crest malachite green ...... C. eyanostigma 
I will not trouble my readers with many scientific details res- 
pecting these birds, but subjoin the following particulars of their 
habits taken from the description in my ‘ Monograph of the Alce- 
dinide.’* I should state that C. cristata is called in my work 
C. vintsioides, and C. cyanostigma is called there C. cristata. This 
mistake was owing to a wrong identification of one of the old 
species of Linnzeus, always a difficult task in the absence of all 
types, and in consequence of the curt descriptions of the older 
authors. 
I. CoryrHornis ORIsTata. 
(Dusky-Crested Kingfisher. ) 
Alcedo vintsioides - - - - - - - - Hyd. et Gerv., Rev. et Mag. de 
Zool. 1836, p. 30, pl. 74. 
Corythornis vintsioides - - - - - - Kaup, Fam. Alced. p 12 (1848). 
Ipsida phillipensis cristata - - - - - Briss. Orn. IV, p. 463,pl. xxxvii 
: (1760). 
Vinchi or Bintsi, of the Natives of Madagascar (Newton, Pollen). 
C. rostro nigerrimo: supri leté ultramarina: crista’ fuscescente-cyaned. 
Hab. in insula ‘ Madagascar’ dicta et in insulis adjacentibus. 
Crown of the head crested, the feathers being dusky-green, 
with black shafts and a bar of black near the tip; sides of 
the head, back of the neck and entire upper-surface brilliant 
ultramarine; wing coverts-black, washed and spotted with ultra- 
marine; quills blackish, the inner web bright rufous at the base, 
the secondaries externally washed with ultramarine; tail ultra- 
marine above, black beneath; chin and a longitudinal patch of 
feathers along the sides of the neck pure white; cheeks and rest 
of the under-surface of the body bright rufous; bill black; feet 
#* A Monograph of the Alcedinide or Kingfishers, by R. B. Sharpe. 
