24 BULLETIN 98, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
provinces; south through the Malay Peninsula to the Mergui Archi- 
pelago and Malacca. 
~ 6. Ceyx tridactylus macrocarus, new subspecies. 
Subspecific characters.—Similar to Ceyx tridactylus tridactylus, but 
decidedly larger; the bluish black forehead spot at base of culmen 
much smaller, often wanting; and the pileum of a somewhat darker 
ferruginous. 
Description—Type, adult male, No. 178555, U.S.N.M.; Great 
Nicobar Island, Nicobar Islands, March 14, 1901; Dr. W. L. Abbott. 
Pileum and cervix ferruginous, strongly washed posteriorly and 
laterally with magenta; forehead on each side of the culmen with a 
spot of ochraceous buff; a conspicuous spot of pale canary yellow on 
each side of the neck; above this a spot of hyacinth blue; back 
hyacinth blue; scapulars and wings black, the scapulars, lesser and 
middle coverts broadly tipped with the same blue; the quills broadly 
margined interiorly except at tips with tawny ochraceous; bend of 
wing orange rufous; rump and upper tail-coverts magenta over 
orange rufous; tail ferruginous, the central feathers tipped with 
fuscous; chin white; rest of lower parts, including the lining of the 
wings, rich lemon yellow, paler on the throat, richer on the breast 
and sides of body; sides of head and neck the same but tinged with 
tawny; bill bright red. 
Measurements.i—Wing, 56-62 (average, 58.4) mm.; tail, 22—27.5 
(24.3); exposed culmen, 33-35.5 (34.7); tarsus, 8-10 (9.1). 
Geographic distribution.—Nicobar Islands; ¢Andaman Islands. 
All the names that have been applied to Ceyx tridactylus ? refer 
without doubt to the mainland form. All our specimens are from 
the Island of Great Nicobar, but Ceyz iridactylus macrocarus doubtless 
occurs on also other islands of the Nicobar group. I have seen no 
specimens of Ceyx iridactylus from the Andaman Islands, but the 
species occurs there, and will probably prove to be of the Nicobar 
form. There seem to be no differences in color, other than those 
already mentioned, between Ceyx iridaciylus macrocarus and Ceyz 
tridactylus tridaciylus. The small size of the blackish forehead spot 
is very noticeable in the former, so far as our specimens go; in six of 
our ten birds this marking is either absent or reduced to insignifi- 
cance, while in none of the others is it so large as is usual in Ceyz 
1 No separation of males and females is here made, because their dimensions are practically alike. 
2 These are: 
Alcedo tridactyla Pallas, Spicel. Zool., fase. 6, 1769, p. 10, pl. 2, fig. 1 (Surinam [!]; locality wrong; I desig- 
nate Bengal, India, as type-locality). 
Alcedo erythaca Gmelin, Syst. Nat., vol. 1, pt. 1, 1788, p. 449 (Bengal, India). 
Alcedo purpurea Gmelin, Syst. Nat., vol. 1, pt. 1, 1788, p. 449 (Pondichery, India). 
Ceyx luzoniensis Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. 13, pt. 2, 1825, p. 106 (new name for Alcedo tridac- 
tyla Shaw, Gen. Zool, vol. 8, 1811, p. 104). 
Ceyx microsoma Burton, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1837 (Feb. 13, 1838) p. 89 (India Maderaspatana). 
Boddaert’s Alcedo rubra (Tabl. Planch. Enlum. d’Hist. Nat., 1783, p. 48 [Madagascar], is sometimes 
quoted as asynonym of Ceyz tridactylus, but it is clearly the same as Jspidina madagascariensis (Linnaeus). 
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