ISPIDINA NATALENSIS. 113 
latter broadly varied with white ; lower part of the throat and chest 
rich rufous, the sides varied with slaty-grey, the feathers spotted with 
white; flanks white banded with slaty-grey; under wing and tail- 
coverts white with an occasional black spot ; centre of the abdomen 
and vent pure white ; bill black; feet dark olive brown; irides nearly 
black. ‘Total length, 14°8 inches; of bill from front, 3°5, from gape, 
4:3; wing, 8:0; tail, 5-3; tarsus, 0°4; middle toe, 1:0; hind toe, 
0:3. 
Adult female.—Similar to the male, but instead of the upper part 
of the chest being rufous, it is replaced by a broad slate-coloured 
band, each feather being banded with white; below this there is a 
white band, and the rest of the under surface of the body with the 
under wing and tail-coverts isrufous. Total length, 16°5 inches; of 
bill from front, 3°5; from gape, 4:5; wing, 8:0; tail, 4°75; tarsus, 
0:4; middle toe, 1:0; hind toe, 0'3. 
Young female.—Similar to the adult female, but has the feathers 
of the band on the breast darker and edged with white the whole 
band tinged with rufous. 
Young male.—Similar to the young female, but has the abdomen 
and under wing and tail-coverts white. From an examination of 
several young males we are induced to believe that as the bird ad- 
yances in age the rufous colouring of the under wing-coverts becomes 
pure white as in the adult male; then the abdomen loses the rufous 
— colouring, the flanks and under tail-coverts becoming slaty-grey 
barred and spotted with white, the latter again in very old birds 
becoming pure white. At the same time the black feathers on the 
upper part of the breast disappear, being replaced by a rufous 
band. 
Fig. Sharpe, Monogr. Alced. pl. 20, 
107. IsPrpINA NATALENSIS. Natal Kingfisher. 
Haleyon cyanotis, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 64. 
Alcedo natalensis, Layard, t. c. p. 66. 
Sir Andrew Smith, who first described this species, states that it 
““imhabits the banks of rivers, &c., to the eastward of Cafferland.” 
The Leiden Museum also has it from Caffraria, but the greater num- 
ber of the specimens which we have seen have been from Natal, 
where, according to Captain Shelley, “it is rather more plentiful 
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