128 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Sp. 63. TODIRHAMPHUS SANCTUS. 



Sacred Kingfisher. 



Sacred Kingsfisher, Phill. Bot. Bay, pi. in p. 156. 



Halcyon Sanctus, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 206. 



saci'a, Steph. Cont. Shaw's Gen. Zool. vol. xiii. p. 98. 



sancta, G. R. Gray, List of Spec, of Birds in Coll. Brit. Mus., 



part ii. sec. i. p. 56. 

 Dacelo chlorocephala, var. /3, Less. Traite d'Orn., p. 246. 

 Todirhamphus sanctus, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., torn. i. p. 156, Todi- 



rhamphus, sp. 3. 

 Australasice, Cass. Cat. Hale. in Coll. Acad. Nat. Sci. Mus. Philad., 



p. 13. 

 Sauropatis sancta, Cab. et Hein. Mus. Hein., Theil ii. p. 158. . 

 Kinysjisher of the Colonists. 

 Kun-yee-nuk of the Aborigines, Western Australia. 



Halcyon sanctus, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. ii. pi. 21. 



The Sacred Kingfisher is very generally dispersed over the 

 Australian continent. I have specimens from nearly every 

 locality : those from Port Essington on the north are precisely 

 identical with those of the south coast ; on the other hand, 

 those inhabiting Western Australia are a trifle larger in all 

 their measurements, but otherwise present no differences of 

 sufficient importance to warrant their being considered as 

 distinct. It does not inhabit Tasmania. 



It is a summer resident in New South Wales and through- 

 out the southern portion of the continent, retiring northwards 

 after the breeding-season. It begins to disappear in Decem- 

 ber, and by the end of January few are to be seen : solitary 

 individuals may, however, be met with even in the depth of 

 winter. They return again in spring, commencing in August, 

 and by the middle of September are plentifully dispersed over 

 all parts of the country, inhabiting alike the most thickly 

 wooded brushes, the mangrove-forests which border, in many 

 parts, the armlets of the sea, and the more open and thinly 



