48 BOURNS AND WORCESTER: PRELIMINARY NOTES. 



We retain the name C. bournsi because some seventy-five per 

 cent of our specimens answer fairly well the description of that 

 species as given by Dr. Sharpe, Cat. B. xvii. p. 185. When this 

 type is once departed from, however, the variations are intermina- 

 ble and with a smaller series of specimens at our disposal we 

 should certainly have fallen into hopeless confusion. We note, also, 

 great variability in the color of the under surface, some specimens 

 being very much darker than others. 



Ceyx bournsi is a strictly woods form and its shy habits doubt- 

 less explain its having been so generally missed by collectors. 



Ceyx cyanipectus Lafr. 



Ceyx cyanipectus Lafr.; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xvii. p. 185 (1892). 

 .Ceyx steerii Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xvii. p. 187 (1892). 



It is with regret that we find ourselves compelled to differ from so 

 eminent an authority as Dr. Sharpe, but an examination of a large 

 series of specimens has convinced us that the Luzon and Mindoro 

 birds are identical. C. cyanipectus is extremely common along the 

 fresh water steams in the interior of Mindoro. On one occasion we 

 shot thirteen specimens in a single day. 



Dr. Sharpe records one female only from Mindoro in the British 

 Museum collection. He separates the Mindoro bird on accout of 

 "the dull reddish color of the under surface," but Luzon birds in fine 

 plumage SHOW THIS SAME COLOR. The plate in Ibis, 1884, is ex- 

 tremely poor and gives an entirely erroneous idea of the color of the 

 under parts of the Luzon bird. The plate in Dr. Sharpe's mono- 

 graph of the Alcedinidae is much nearer the truth. 



We are forced to the conclusion that Dr. Sharpe has fallen into 

 error on account of insufficient material, though the trouble seems 

 to be rather with the Luzon specimens than with the one from Min- 

 doro. If the plate in Ibis correctly represents the specimens 

 obtained by Mr. Maitland-Herriot they must have been in extremely 

 poor plumage. The other British Museum specimens from Luzon 

 are apparently all old and may be faded. 



We found C. cyanipectus along the banks of fresh water streams 

 in Masbate and Sibuyan as well as in Mindoro and Luzon. 



In Sibuyan a single specimen was seen in a mangrove swamp. 

 We never met with it away from water. 



