1918.] Becently published Ornithological Works. 733 



the life-histories of the Australian species compiled by 

 Mr. Mathews we find much that will attract the attention 

 of the reader and possibly be new to him, especially when 

 coupled with admirable pictures. 



But far the most important section in this part of the 

 author's work is his dissertation on the genus Halcyon, 

 as limited by Sharpe in the British Museum Catalogue, 

 vol. xvii., to which so many of the Australian forms belong. 

 He desires to perform for this what Miller in America has 

 done for the Alcedinince, though much difficulty has been 

 caused by former splitting and recombining what now must 

 be split anew. 



The type is shown to be Alcedo senegalenns of Swainson, 

 1821, who separated Halcyon from Alcedo. 



In 1827 Lesson proposed the generic names Syma, Meli- 

 dora, and Todirhamphus, though \ns Alcyon {reciius Halcyon) 

 1830 for Alcedo L. was of course preoccupied, and there was 

 no necessity to reduce the titles to subgenera. After 1848 

 Kaup, Bona})arte, Keichenbach and Cabanis & Heine created 

 further genera, valid or invalid ; and then in 1869 G. R. 

 Gray started an era of recombination, which culminated in 

 the somewhat inconsistent work of Sharpe. 



Mr. Mathews makes the following decisions : — 



1. That Entomothero should be removed to the Alcedinina. 



2. That the Australian Kingfishers show so little affinity 



to the African that we cannot keep them under 

 Halcyon. 



3. He accepts as genera 



Syma for torotoi-o. 



Chelicutia „ chelicuti. 



Calialcyon „ coromanda. 

 Todirhamphus „ 



Cyanalcyon „ pyrropygius. 



Sauropatis „ sancta and sordida. 



Actenoides ,, the hombroni group. 



Caridagrus „ the concretus group. 



Uralcyon „ sylvia. 



