324 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIKDS. 



open, less common along wooded streams. Especially abundant in man- 

 grove swamps and along the seashore. The usual native name is 'tick-a- 

 rool'." (Bourns and Worcester MS.) 



286. HALCYON HOME RON I (Bonaparte). 



HOMBRON'S KINGFISHER. 



Aotenoides hombroni BONAPARTE, Consp. Gen. Avium (1850), 1, 157. 

 Halcyon hombroni SHABPE, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1892), 17, 284; Hand- 

 List (1900), 2, 61; MCGREGOR and WORCESTER, Hand-List (1906), 55. 



Mindanao (Hombron d Jacquinot, Stcere, Everett, Steere Exp., Bourns d Wor- 

 cester, Ooodfellow, Celestino). 



"Adult male. Head and nape bright blue, more brilliant on the sides 

 of the head, above the eye, and on the nape; round the latter a narrow 

 line of deep black ; ear-coverts chestnut ; along the lower line of the lores 

 a streak of black, reaching below the eye, and widening behind the latter, 

 being here washed with blue ; cheeks bright blue, forming a broad band ; 

 sides of neck and hinder part of the latter deep tawny, varied with narrow 

 black edgings to the feathers; mantle blackish, mottled with spots of 

 tawny-buff, these being subterminal, with a narrow fringe of black ; center 

 of back, scapulars, and wing-coverts green, with a slight shade of verditer, 

 each feather having a distinct subterminal spot of ochraceous-buff ; quills 

 blackish, externally washed with greenish, the primaries edged with 

 ochraceous, the secondaries with the same subterminal spot of ochraceous 

 as on the wing-coverts; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts bright 

 silvery cobalt, the sides of the back and the lateral coverts blackish, 

 washed with blue; tail-feathers deep blue, with black shafts; throat 

 white, slightly washed with tawny ; rest of the under surface deep tawny, 

 whiter on the center of the abdomen; breast-feathers with narrow, 

 nearly obsolete, blackish margins; thighs externally blackish, internally 

 deep tawny; feathers at side of vent, adjoining the sides of the lower 

 back, deep blue, the outer web more or less ochraceous; under wing- 

 coverts and axillars deep tawny; quills blackish below, edged with pale 

 tawny-buff along the inner web. Length, 287; culmen, 51; wing, 126; 

 tail, 105; tarsus, 19." (Sharpe.) 



Female. Similar to the male but crown and cheek-band greenish ; the 

 greenish wash on wings very faint ; tail faintly washed with green instead 

 of blue. 



"A strictly woods form, never met with in the open. Quite common 

 in Mindanao, and so far as is at present known, confined to that island. 



"Iris very dark brown; legs and feet dirty greenish olive; culmen 

 black; bill along gape dirty red, darker at base. Food, beetles and small 

 snails. Measurements from seven males: Length, 283; wing, 123; tail, 

 94; culmen, 46; tarsus, 16; middle toe with claw, 26. Six females, 

 length, 278; wing, 120; tail, 94; culmen, 48; tarsus, 16; middle toe with 

 claw, 28." (Bourns and Worcester MS.) 



