THE RUDDY KINGFISHER. 81 



and then darts away with lightning speed, uttering a low sibilant note. 

 ]\Ir. Parker found the eggs in Ceylon in April, July and August; and he 

 states that, unlike those of other Kingfishers, they are pointed at the ends. 

 The birds under observation were breeding in dense forest far from water. 

 The allied C. rufidorsa, from the Malayan peninsula and islands, is still 

 more brilliantly coloured, and wants the blackish-blue patches on the sides 

 of the head. 



Genus HALCYON, Swains. 



470. HALCYON COROMANDA. 

 THE RUDDY KINGFISHER. 



Alcedo coromanda, Lath. 2nd. Orn. i. p. 252. Halcyon coromandelianus (Scop.), 

 Jcrd. B. Ind. i. p. 227. Callialcyon coromanda, Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 101 ; 

 David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 76. Halcyon coromanda, Sharpe, Mon. Alced. 

 p. 155, pi. 57; Hume, S. F. ii. pp. 169, 494; Bl B. Sunn. p. 70; Wardlaw 

 Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 456; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 75; Hume, S. F. 

 viii. p. 85. 



Description. Male and female. The whole upper plumage rich rufous, 

 suffused with shining lilac, glossy on all the parts except the forehead, 

 crown and lores ; the inner webs of the tail and wings duller rufous ; 

 lower back and rump glossy bluish white ; lower plumage rich ferruginous, 

 paler on the throat and darkest on the breast. 



Bill red, blackish at the base ; iris brown ; legs and claws red. 



Length 10 inches, tail 2' 7, wing 4'2, tarsus '6, bill from gape 2'5. The 

 female is of about the same size. 



The Ruddy Kingfisher is one of the rarest in British Burmah, being found 

 only occasionally in a few places. I shot one specimen near the town of 

 Pegu, and I once observed it near Shwaygheen, and the late Colonel Lloyd 

 appears to have sent it to the Marquis of Tweeddale from the neighbourhood 

 of Tonghoo ; it may, however, be more common in the maritime portions 

 of the Division. Mr. Davison found it throughout Tenasserim, but chiefly 

 near the sea, and my men brought me one specimen from Malewoon. 



This species is found in India along the base of the Himalayas, in Nipal 

 and Sikhim, and also in Lower Bengal. It occurs in the Andaman 

 Islands, the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Philippines, 

 Celebes, Formosa and Japan; and Dr. Tiraud gives it from Cochin China. 



VOL. ii. 



