16G CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



as the secondaries on the outer webs, but a trifle brighter. 

 The shafts, both of quills and rectrices, conspicuously white on 

 their lower surfaces. 



Mr. Davison remarks that " this bird, though not very rare, is 

 excessively difficult to obtain ; it is so wary. A favorite post with 

 them is on one of the fishing stakes at the mouths of creeks ; 

 from these posts they can see the approach of any danger, on 

 the least signs of which they immediately make for the forest 

 or mangroves ; they are found up all the salt water creeks about 

 the Andamans. They have a loud shrieking note, which they 

 generally utter while on the wing." 



I saw several pairs about Macpherson's Straits and at Little 

 Button, but we never saw a specimen either at the Nicobars or 

 Cocos. 



127 ter.— Pelargopsis leucocephala, Gmel? 



P. intermedia, Sp. Nov. ? (4.) 



The Nicobarian Stork-billed Kingfisher is certainly not, in 

 my opinion, identical with Fraseri of Java and Sumatra, 

 to which it has hitherto been assigned. It seems to me inter- 

 mediate between that species and leucocephala of Borneo, and 

 I have provisionally named it intermedia. The following are 

 the dimensions taken in the flesh and an exact description of this 

 very beautiful species : — 



Length, 14*5 to 15*5 ; expanse, 21 to 22 ; wing, 5'82 to 6*1 ; 

 tail, from vent, 4 to 4-5 ; tarsus, 0*6 to 0*75 ; bill, from gape, 

 3-6 to 3:9 ; bill, at front, 2-8 to 3-1 ; weight, 7 to 8*5 ozs. ; 

 wings, when closed, reach to within 2 "4 to 2 '6 of end of tail. 



The legs and feet vary from bright vermilion orange to coral 

 red. The bill is coral red, dusky towards the tip ; the irides 

 deep brown ; the orbital skin orange vermilion. 



The general appearance of the bird is very much that of 

 leucocephala as figured by Mr. Sharpe ; but the back is a rich 

 smalt, and not the pale aquamarine he figures. The head 

 moreover is not nearly so rufous. The color of the under parts 

 of this species and of barmanica (fine adults being selected) 

 is absolutely identical. Whereas Fraseri is represented with, 

 pale under parts of the same tint as in gurial. Our bird is 

 moreover characterized by having the whole of the feathers of 

 the forehead and crown as well as of the centre of occiput and 

 nape moderately dark brown, the feathers tipped and margined 

 with pale ochreous buff, so that until ihe feathers are lifted 

 the brown only shows through as a series of spots. The fea- 

 thers at the gape and of the ear-coverts are also brownish 



