ON THE CRESTED KINGFISHERS OF AFRICA. 135 
for we can find no difference whatever, except the variation 
of size, in the numerous examples which have passed through 
our hands during the thirty years we have busied ourselves with 
the study of Natural History and of Ornithology principally.” 
‘“We must state, however, that specimens from certain locali- 
ties on the West Coast appear to us to be of a smaller size, while 
those from the Eastern portion, on the young of which our col- 
league, M. Riippell, has founded his A. cyanostigma, entirely 
resemble those from the Cape of Good Hope. We have gained 
proofs of this by the comparison that we have made during our 
journeys among public museums. For the rest, its manners are 
the same as the Alcedo ispida of Europe. In the adult birds, no 
difference exist between the sexes; both have the iris clear blue, 
with the beak and feet lively red.” 
The description and measurements are from specimens in my 
own collection. 
II.—Corytuornis CRULEOCEPHALA. 
(Blue-crested Kingfisher. ) 
Alcedo ceruleocephala - - Gm. Syst. Nat. I, p. 449 (1788). 
Corythornis ceruleocephala - Kaup. Fam. Alced. p. 13 (1848). 
Alcedo cyaneocephala - Shaw, Gen. Zool. VIII, p. 100 (1812). 
Alcedo cyanocephala - Hartl. and Finsch, Orn. Ostafr. p. 163 (1869) 
Corythornis cyanocephala - Cab. and Heine, Mus. Hein. th. II. p. 145 
(1860). 
Corythornis nuis - - Kaup. Fam. Alced. p. 12 (1848). 
Alcedo nais - - - Gray, Cat, Fiss. Brit. Mus. p. 64 (1848). 
Petit Muartin-pecheur de Senegal, Buff. Pl. Enl. 356. 
C. rostro corallino : crista breviori, letissimé cyanea. 
Hab. in Africa occidentali, in Abyssinia et in Africa eur-australi. 
Head brilliant blue, with a long crest, each feather of which is 
blue with a black shaft and crossed by two black bands near the 
tip ; sides of the head and rest of the upper surface of the body 
ultramarine; wing-coverts black spotted with ultramarine; quills 
blackish, their inner webs pale rufous at the base, the secondaries 
edged with ultramarine ; tail blackish with a tinge of ultramarine 
above; throat and a patch of feathers along the sides of the neck, 
