101 



RUFOUS-VENTED KINGHUNTER. 



Halcyon rvfiventer^ SWAINS. 

 PLATE XII. 



Above, pale shining blue ; wing-covers, interscapulars, tertials, 

 and ends of the primaries, black ; beneath white, with the 

 lower half of the body, the flanks, and under wing-covers, 

 rufous i crown grey ; bill and legs red. 



Martin Pecheur bleu et noir de Senegal ? PL Enl. 356. 



THE species we now name the Halcyon rufiventer 

 has been, if we mistake not, long ago figured in the 

 Planche Enluminees of Buffon, or at least the lower 

 figure, at Plate 356, represents a hird very nearly 

 allied to that now before us. It seems, however, 

 according to Sonnini, to have been overlooked by 

 systematists as a variety of some other, and he ac- 

 cordingly calls it the Martin Pecheur bleu et now 

 du Senegal, without, however, giving it a Latin 

 name. Can this be the same as the Dacelo acteon 

 of a French writer ? At all events, we cannot adopt 

 such mythological and unmeaning names, without 

 setting at defiance all those sound and admirable 

 rules of systematic nomenclature which have been 

 laid down by the great masters of our science *. 



* See Classification of Birds, vol. i. page 228. 



