CATALOGUE OF CORACIA! AND TROGONES. 2] 
americana, suis. septentrionalis, Sharpe. Ten. 6 3,3 9. Honduras 
(Belize). Mexico. Guatemala (Coban, November). 
inda (Linn.). Eleven. 6 3,5 9. Surinam. Brazil (Para). 
superciliosa (Linn.). Thirteen. Panama. Surinam. © Brazil (Para). 
superciliosa, susp. stictoptera, ftidgv. Five. 4 64, 9. Mexico. 
Honduras. Guatemala (Yzabel). 
Messrs. Godman & Salvin (Biol. Centr. Amer. Aves, ii. pp. 478, 479) do not re- 
cognise this subspecies. The specimen from Panama, enumerated under C. 
superciliosa typica, seems perfectly intermediate between. specimens from 
Mexico and others from Para. 
equatorialis, Sharpe. 
ALCEDO, Linn. 
ispida, Zinn. Fifty-five. 3 6,5 9, 2 jr. England (Durham; Greatham, 
February ; Norfolk, Norwich, February ; near London; Kent, Boxley ; 
Hants, Mottisfont, January, May). Greece (Pylos, February). Palestine 
(Jericho, January). Northern India (Kumaon). Nepaul. Southern 
India (Nellore). Ceylon. Malay Peninsula (Penang). Borneo (Baram, 
May; Bonguey). China (Canton; Hong-Kong ; Amoy, May; Chusan). 
Japan (Nikko, April ; Soguzima, December). 
ispida, subsp. taprobana, Kleinschmidt, Ornith. Monatsber. ii. p. 126 (1894). Rothsch. 
Nov. Zool. iii. p. 550 (foot note) (1896). 
“From Ceylon comes Alcedo ispida bengalensis, Gm., a smaller form of our king-' 
fisher, often of such an unusual colouration that I cannot but describe it as a 
distinct form, which does not agree with the characters of any described species 
or subspecies ; neither in the British Museum Catalogue or in Sharpe’s ‘ Mono- 
graph of the Kingfishers,’ nor in any other literature at my disposal, can I find 
any remarks on the subject. The above-mentioned bird has the upper surface of 
an extraordinary bright blue, therein resembling Alcedo ispidoides, Less. The 
points of difference may be best characterised by comparison with the allied 
forms. ‘The colours of the kingfisher, as is well known, appear differently when 
viewed by direct and reflected light ; calling the tint of the upper surface when 
viewed by direct light (eye between source of light and the object) I., and the 
tint by reflected light (object between the light and the eye) II..:— 
“Var. taprobana I. = bengalensis II. 
" " II. = meningting I. 
" " I. = ispidoides I. 
" " II. = "W II. 
“From A. zspidoides, Less. var. taprobana differs in having the bill feebler, and in 
the brown mark on the side of the head ; from A. ispidoides floresiana, Sharpe, 
in the size of this mark ; the last-named subspecies stands also between tapro- 
bana and ispidoides. 
“‘It would be very interesting to ascertain whether the same is the case as regards 
the size of the bill ; unfortunately I only know floresiana from description. ‘That 
taprobana is not the very adult plumage of bengalensis, two young birds, one in my 
collection, and the other in the Berlin Museum show ; in them the upper surface, 
by direct and reflected light, is dull blue and the under surface bright rust red. 
In bengalensis the opposite is the case to taprobana and ispida, in that there is 
most white on the young plumage birds. In very old taprobana in my collection, 
the feathers of the shoulder are edged with bright blue. 
“This form seems confined to Ceylon ; intermediate forms between it and benga/lensis 
occur, yet specimens of bengalensis from Ceylon appear always distinguishable by 
the brighter colouration on the angle of the wing.”. (Kleimschmidt). Habitat. 
Ceylon. 
There are two specimens.of an Alcedo from Ceylon which we have referred to A. 
ispida bengalensis, if that form is to remain distinct. One of them appears 
identical in the colouration of the upper parts with specimens from Nepaul and 
Southern India, though the brighter tips to the upper wing-coverts are perhaps 
somewhat more marked. The other specimen is of a rather bluer tinge above, 
though it can be matched by specimens from Borneo ; it is almost exactly the 
same colour as aspecimen of A. aspidoides, which, however, is evidently immature, 
as shown by the dusky tinge on the breast. The adult birds of isprdotdes are of 
‘a very much more intense blue above, the same as A. ispida floresiana. Is it 
possible that the moist uplands of Ceylon have caused some slight differentiation 
between the birds inhabiting them and those of the drier lowlands ? 
