DACELO PULCHELLA. 



" the head and a posterior collar. The under-parts are uniform ; the wings ahove 

 " and the tail are transversely banded." 



This bird fully deserves the epithet given to it in the specific denomination ; 

 it exhibits a very beautiful display of colours, which requires little illustration by 

 description. In its residence in Java, as far as I have been able to ascertain, it is 

 extremely local. I found it once only, in a low range of hills, about twenty miles 

 South East of Semarang, known in the central parts of the Island by the name of 

 Hills of Prowoto. Here a single bird was obtained in the forest. 



The Dacelo pulchella has on the forehead and sides of the head a very saturated 

 chesnut colour, which is continued in a broad band round the lower part of the 

 neck. The crown of the head, the occiput, and the upper part of the neck, are 

 covered with an oblong mark, with regularly defined sides of a beautiful azure, 

 having a few transverse dots of white and black. The upper part of the wings and 

 the back exhibit a beautiful variety of sea-green, black and white, disposed in trans- 

 verse bands, which are produced by the distribution of colours in the plumes cover- 

 ing these parts. The wing coverts, the scapulars, and the plumes of the back and 

 uropygium, are marked alternately with bands of white and black, and have a ter- 

 minal band of sea-green. The quill-feathers are entirely black, and the secondary 

 feathers have alternately a broad black and a narrow white band. The tail-feathers 

 are twelve in number ; the shafts of all are intensely black and shining : of the 

 eight intermediate feathers the interior barb consists of bands alternately black and 

 white ; and the exterior, of bands alternately black and blue. The feather next fol- 

 lowing on each side has the interior barb like the others ; but the exterior barb has 

 the alternating bands partly blue and partly white ; the exterior feather on each side 

 has the barbs on both sides alternately banded black and white. Of the under 

 parts the throat is whitish, and the breast and abdomen very diluted ferruginous. 

 The wings beneath are whitish in the axilla, and as far as the base of the quill-fea- 

 thers extends ; the extremity of these is brown. The bill has a saturated orange 

 tint, which is paler towards the base ; and the feet and claws agree in colour with 

 the abdomen. 



