72 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



Family ALCEDINID^. 

 Subfamily ALCEDININ^S. 



Genus ALCEDO, Linn. 



462. ALCEDO BENGALENSIS. 



THE LITTLE INDIAN KINGFISHER. 



Alcedo bengalensis, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 450 ; Jerd, B. Ind. i. p. 230 ; Skarpe, Mon. 

 Alced. p. 11, pi. 2 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 107 ; Hume fy Henders. Lah. to 

 Yark. p. 178 j Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 92 ; Hume, S. F. i. pp. 168, 169, iii. 

 p. 52 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 71 ; Armstrong, 8. F. iv. p. 307 ; David et Oust. Ois. 

 Chine, p. 74 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 292 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 580 ; 

 Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 457 ; Hume fy Dav. S. F. vi. p. 81 ; Hume, 

 S. F. viii. p. 86 ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 155. 



Description. Male and female. Forehead, crown and nape blackish 

 banded with pale blue ; a band from the nostrils through the eye to the 

 end of the ear-coverts bright rufous ; cheeks and a band under the ear- 

 coverts blackish mottled with blue ; a patch of white on each side the neck ; 

 chin and throat white ; under plumage and under wing-coverts bright 

 rufous or chestnut; centre of the back, rump and upper tail-coverts 

 glistening blue ; wing-coverts dark brown speckled with blue ; quills dark 

 brown edged with blue ; scapulars dull brownish blue ; tail pale blue. 



Bill dark blackish brown, tinged with reddish at the gape ; mouth 

 salmon-colour ; iris brown ; eyelids plumbeous ; legs orange-red ; claws 

 dark horn. 



Length 6'8 inches, tail 1'45, wing 2'75, .tarsus '35, bill from gape 1*9. 

 The female is quite as large as the male, but has the base of the lower 

 mandible reddish. 



The amount of banding on the head and the intensity of colouring on 

 both the upper and under plumages vary much in this species ; they are 

 not, however, dependent on sex, but probably on age. A. ispida, the 

 common European Kingfisher, differs in being larger, with a proportionately 

 smaller bill and is also duller in coloration. 



The Little Indian Kingfisher is found in all the low-lying parts of 

 Burmah and Karennee, except perhaps in those portions of the former 

 which lie immediately near the sea. 



Elsewhere it has an immense distribution, extending on the west as far 

 as Eastern Africa, on the north to Siberia and Japan, and ranging thence 

 to China, Siam, Cochin China, the Malay peninsula, and most of the 

 islands of the Malay archipelago. 



