HALCYON. 485 



specimen, he adds, in the town of Pegu, fully sixty miles from the sea, but where 

 the river is tidal and the water brackish. It extends up the coast to the Bengal 

 Sunderbuns, but it has not been recorded from any other part of the Peninsula 

 of India, except the neighbourhood of Bombay. It has also been procured in 

 the Red Sea. Gates adds that it is abundant in the Andaman Islands, and ranges 

 down the Malayan Peninsula to Sumatra, Java and Borneo. It is also recorded 

 from Siam and Cochin-China. It is a bird of tidal waters, and lives princi- 

 pally on crabs and fish left stranded on mud banks at low water. It breeds 

 in Burmah. Mr. Davison is said to have found its nest in a deserted ants' nest 

 in a garden in Tenasserim. According to Bernstein the eggs are laid on a 

 few dry leaves and pieces of moss. Nothing appears to be known of the 

 number and colour of the eggs. An allied species, Halcyon occipitalis, is found 

 in the Nicobar Islands. It differs from the present species in having a broad 

 buff band surrounding the crown of the head, from the forehead to the nape. 



1121. Halcyon COncreta (Temm.), Sharpe, Mon. Alced. p. 219, 

 pi. 83 ; Hume and Dav., Sir. F. vi p. 76; Hume, Sir. F. viii. p. 86; Oates, 

 B. Br. Burmah ii. p. 84. Dacelo concreta, Temm., PL Col. 346. Cari- 

 dagrus concretus, Salvad, Ucc. Born. p. 102. The SUMATRAN KINGFISHER. 



Forehead, crown and nape dull green ; lores, and abroad band through the 

 eyes and ear coverts completely encircling the head, black ; a broad mousta- 

 chial line an inch and a half long blue, tipped with black near the end ; a 

 narrow supercilium from the nostrils to the end of the ear coverts, also the 

 space between the black and blue bands of the head and a broad collar round 

 the upper back, the sides of the neck also, and the whole lower plumage 

 orange buff, paling on the vent and under tail coverts ; a patch on either side 

 of the breast blackish ; the back immediately next the orange buff, black ; 

 wing coverts, secondaries and tail blue ; quills dark brown, edged with blue, 

 the tertiaries broadly so ; the first primary edged narrowly with orange buff ; 

 back, rump and shorter upper tail coverts smalt blue ; longer tail coverts deeper 

 blue. The female, according to Hume, resembles the male generally, but differs 

 in having the interscapulary region, outer portion of secondaries, visible portion 

 of tertiaries and scapulars all green, with the feathers of the coverts and scapu- 

 lars marked with a buffy-white subterminal spot. (Oates.) Lower mandible 

 of bill, gape and a stripe on the upper mandible parallel to commissure from 

 base to point, bright yellow to chrome yellow ; eyelids of the same colour ; 

 rest of upper mandible dull black. {Davison.) 



Length. 9 inches ; tail 3 '8 ; wing 4*5 ; tarsus 07 ; bill from gape 2*7. 



Hab. British Burmah in the extreme south of Tenasserim at Bankasoon 

 and Malewoon, where Messrs. Davison and Gates procured it. It extends 

 down the Malay Peninsula, and occurs in Sumatra and Borneo. Gates, 

 quoting Davison, says it frequents dense forests and is not found near water ; 

 also that it feeds on lizards and woodlice. 



