494 ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE AVIFAUNA 



131. — Halcyon coromanda, Lath. 



Other Andaman specimens exhibit the same differences that 

 I pointed out (ante, p. 169), viz., they have much larger bills, 

 and are much darker on the lower surface. Before, I compared 

 them with Sikhim specimens, now I compare them with Tenas- 

 serim birds. I took males before, now I take females. 



Two fine Andaman females have the bill, measured from the 

 anterior angle of the nostril to the point, 2'15. Equally fine 

 Tenasserim females have the bills, similarly measured, 1*85. 



The lower surface of the Andaman birds is conspicuously 

 darker, and much more strongly tinged with ruddy purple on 

 the breast than any out of some forty Sikhim and Tenasserim 

 birds. 



The wings, too, seem to average larger. 



If this be separable from coromanda, it is probably major 

 of the F. J. ; Schlegeli, Reich. 



134 bis. — AlcedO asiatica, Swains. 



Lord Walden wants to make a new species out of the Anda- 

 man race of this bird. 



In the Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist, for 1873, p. 487, he says 

 " Alcedo rufigastra, n. sp. 



" Chin and throat creamy white, washed faintly with rufous ; 

 remainder of under surface and the under tail-coverts deep bright 

 rufous ; spot before the eye rufous, paler in some than in 

 others ; feathers of the head black, with a penultimate bright 

 blue band, those of the cheeks all bright blue ; back and upper 

 tail-coverts bright blue ; wing-coverts black, washed with blue, 

 each feather tipped with bright blue ; scapulars and rectrices 

 black, washed with blue. 



" Wing, 25 inches ; tail, 1*62 ; bill, from nostril, 1*37. 



" Described from three male examples obtained in the island of 

 South Andaman by Lieutenant R. Wardlaw Ramsay. 



" This is a well-marked form, intermediate between A. moluc- 

 censis and A. asiatica. Above it nearly resembles the first; 

 underneath it is undistinguishable from the last." And later in 

 the August number for 1874, just to hand, he says : — " At page 

 487 of the twelfth volume of this journal I described as new, 

 ur-^er the title of Alcedo rufigastra, a species of Kingfisher of 

 which examples had been sent to me from the Andaman 

 Islands. A specimen obtained by the late Captain Beavan in 

 Maunbhoom, on comparison, proved to be identical (Ibis, 1874, 

 p. 136) j and I wish, by changing the hybrid title 



