86 ALCEDINID.S: HALCYON 



Halcyon pallidiventris, Cabanis, Journ. Ornith. 1880, p. 349 ; Sharpe. 

 Cat. B. M. xvii, p. 235 (1892) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 117 (1896) ; 

 Marshall, Ibis, 1896, p. 241 [Salisbury], 1900, p. 249; Alexander, 

 Ibis, 1900, p. 104 [Zambesi] . 



Description. Male. Crown, nape, ear-coverts and cheeks ashy, 

 somewhat darker on the crown, which also shows traces of slightly 

 browner shaft marks ; mantle, scapulars, median- and lesser-coverts 

 black ; primary coverts, wing-quills, rump, upper tail-coverts and 

 tail bright blue, the primaries black towards their ends and white 

 on their inner webs ; chin and throat white ; chest ashy-white ; 

 abdomen, flanks, under tail - coverts and under wing-coverts 

 orange-rufous, darkest on the flanks ; wings and tail dusky-black 

 below, some of the under primary coverts white tipped with black. 



Iris dark brown ; bill, legs and feet red, claws dark brown. 



Length 7-70; wing 3-80 ; tail 2-40; culmenl-40; tarsus 0-53. 



The female resembles the male ; in the young bird the beak is 

 black at the tip and the base, and the throat and breast are some- 

 what freckled. 



Distribution. The type of this species described by Smith, came 

 from u the interior of South Africa." The bird has been obtained 

 in the Transvaal, Ehodesia, and Ovampoland, and on the Zambesi, 

 north of which it reaches Angola, north Nyasaland and the in- 

 terior of German east Africa. 



The following are the South African localities : Transvaal near 

 Potchefstroom, September (Ayres) ; Ehodesia Geruah in west 

 Matabeleland, December (Gates), Tati, December, and Umfuli river, 

 October (Ayres), Salisbury, December (Marshall) ; German south- 

 west Africa -- Ondonga, December (Andersson), Ochimbora, 

 November, Omaruru, March, Omoramba, October (Eriksson in 

 S. A. Mus.) ; Portuguese east Africa Zambesi (Alexander). 



Habits. This Kingfisher, which appears to be everywhere rare, 

 is a rainy season migrant, as it only occurs between October and 

 March in South Africa. It is a bush-bird and by no means always 

 found in the neighbourhood of water. According to Marshall the 

 stomach of one examined by* him contained a lizard, two slow- 

 worms, grasshoppers, and beetles. 

 * 



418. Halcyon albiventris. v Brown-hooded Kingfisher. 



Alcedo albiventris, Scop. Del. Flor. et Faun. Insubr. ii, p. 90 (1786). 



Dacelo fuscicapilla, Lafr. Revue et Mag. Zool. 1833, pi. 18. 



Halcyon fuscicapilla, Grill, K. Vel. Akad. HandL Stockholm, ii, no. 10, 



p. 46 (1858) ; Gu-rney, Ibis, 1859, p. 243 [Natal] , I860, p. 204 ; 



Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 63 (1867). 



