90 ALCEDINID^ HALCYON 



Halcyon chelicutensis, Sharpe, Monogr. Alced. p. 187, pi. 67 (1870) ; 



Gurney, Andersson's B. D am ar aland, p. 57 (1872) ; Sharpe, ed. 



Layard's B. S. Afr. pp. 117, 807 (1875-84) ; Gates, Matabeleland, p. 



303 (1881) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1882, p. 244 [Umfuli river] ; Sharpe, Cat. 



B. M. xvii, p. 239 (1892) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 117 (1896) ; Sharpe, 



Ibis, 1897, p. 497 [Zululand] ; Sowerby, Ibis, 1898, p. 571 [Ft. Chi- 



quaqua] ; Woodward, Bros. Natal B. p. 94 (1899) ; Marshall, Ibis, 



1900, p. 249. 

 Halcyon chelicuti, Ay res, Ibis, 1879, p. 293 [Eustenburg] ; Hohib d 



Pelzeln, Orn. Siid-AfriJtas, p. 63 (1882). 



Description. Adult. Crown and head light brown, strongly 

 striped with very dark brown ; a black stripe runs through the eye 

 above the ear- coverts and is continued round the nape of the neck 

 to form a narrow collar, behind which is a rather wider, dirty white 

 one somewhat spotted with black ; mantle, scapulars and wing- 

 coverts dark ashy, some of the latter edged with pale buff, wing- 

 quills ashy, edged, especially the secondaries, with blue, the 

 concealed bases by white ; back, rump, and upper tail-coverts 

 bright cobalt ; tail darker and duller blue ; throat white ; cheeks, 

 ear-coverts and the rest of the lower surface buffy-white streaked 

 and freckled with dark brown, narrowly on the ear-coverts and 

 breast, more strongly on the flanks ; axillaries and under wing- 

 coverts white, the primary under wing-coverts black, forming a spot 

 on the under side of the wing. 



Iris dark brown ; bill, upper mandible purplish-red, lower bright 

 red ; legs and feet light red, red- brown in front. 



Length in flesh 7*5, in skin 7-20 ; wing 3'3 ; tail 1-7 ; culmen 

 1-25 ; tarsus 045. 



The sexes are alike ; the young birds are duller in colour and 

 are more thickly streaked on the lower side. 



Distribution. The Striped Kingfisher is found over the greater 

 part of Africa from the Gambia on the west, and Abyssinia (whence 

 came Lord Stanley's type) and Somaliland on the east, southwards 

 to the Orange river. Within our limits it has not been noticed 

 south of the Orange river or in Natal proper, though it appears 

 to be common in Zululand, and thence northwards to the Zambesi. 



The following are localities : Cape Colony Upington on the 

 Orange river (Bradshaw in S. A. Mus.) ; Zululand Eshowe and 

 St. Lucia Lake (Woodward) ; Transvaal Lydenburg (Francis in S. 

 A. Mus.), Pretoria (Bt. Mus.), and Eustenburg (Ayres) ; Ehodesia 

 Pandamatenka, near Victoria Falls (Holub), Umfuli river (Ayres), 

 Salisbury district (Marshall); German south-west Africa Elephants 



