93 



GREAT AFRICAN KINGFISHER. 



Ispida gigantea, SWAINS. 

 PLATE XL 



Above, cinereous, spotted with white ; chin and cheeks, white, 

 immaculate ; breast with a broad rufous collar ; head above, 

 black, crested behind. 



AMONG the largest sized Kingfishers that hare long 

 been imperfectly known and incorporated in our 

 systems, there is the greatest confusion, not only as 

 to the characters of the hirds themselves, but like- 

 wise in regard to their native countries. The 

 Alcedo gigantea, or Giant Kingfisher of the old 

 authors, long since removed from this genus, in- 

 cludes two, if not three species. The Alcedo afra, 

 or Great African Kingfisher (PL Enl. 679), is a 

 native of Brazil, while the Alcedo torquata, said to 

 be found in Mexico, is only the female of the last. 

 We have, however, in the bird we now designate, a 

 species of a size fully equal to any of its genus, and 

 in every respect strikingly different from any of the 

 above. 



The general colour above is dark cinereous, 

 thickly covered with white spots; these spots are 

 thickest on the wing, and nearly obsolete on the 



