216 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant on Birds 



but other examples from North Australia (Port Darwin ^nd 

 Port Essington) do not differ from typical H. madeayi. The 

 differences in colour are probably entirely due to wear^ the 

 back and scapulars being bluer in freshly moulted birds 

 and becoming more or less verditer-green as the plumage 

 becomes worn. 



Halcyon nigrocyaneus. 



Halcyon nigrocyaneus Wallace, P. Z. S. ].862, p. 165, 

 pi. xix. ; Sharpe, Cat. xvii. p. 256 (1892) ; RoUis, & Hartert, 

 N. Z. viii. p. 154 (1901) ; Ogilvie-Grant, P. & P. p. 2m 

 (;912) ; id. Ibis, 1913, p. 97. 



a. S. Wakatiini, Mimika River, 3i'd March, J911. 

 [No. 1096, C.H.B.G.] 



Iris dark brown ; bill black, white on the underside of the 

 lower mandible ; feet and toes clear ash-colour. 



Wallace's description is founded on an adult female. The 

 type, which is in the British Museum, differs from the male 

 in having the breast and belly white ; in the latter the 

 underparts are rich purplish-blue with a broad white band 

 across the lower breast. In the adult male from Wakatimi^ 

 the greater part of the belly as well as the sides of the body 

 and flanks are black ; in this respect it resembles a male 

 from the Gould Collection (listed as specimen h in the 

 'Catalogue of Birds') and probably from the Arfak, as it 

 was no doubt procured by A. B. Meyer's collectors. 



There is a similar black-bellied male specimen in the 

 Tring Museum from Etna Bay, obtained by Cayley Webster. 



In an adult male from Sorong (specimen d of the ' Cata-r 

 logue'), the sides of the body, flanks, and almost the entire 

 belly are purplish-blue like the breast ; there are three 

 similar specimens in the Tring Museum from Jobi Island 

 and Arfaki This diff'erence in the colour of the belly is no 

 doubt individual^ and possibly caused by age. 



It has been suggested by Messrs. Rothschild and Hartert 

 that Halcyon qxiadricolor Oustalet (Le Nat. 1880, p. 323) is 

 probably synonymous with the present species, but the type- 

 specimen figured by Sharpe in Gould's '■ Birds of New 



