TANYSIPTERA RIEDELI, Verr. 



(Riedel's Kingfisher.) 



By Mr. G. D. ROWLEY. 



With certain other skins from the same region I received this, and proposed 

 to give a Plate, the birds of this genus being all very beautiful. But Mr. 

 Keulemans's figure in Mr. Sharpe's ' Monograph of the Alcedinidse ' is so 

 good that I refrain, though the sex is not stated. The sexes, however, appear 

 much alike in this species ; for if mine is correctly marked it is a female : — 

 " III. '73. Kordo, Mysore : Dr. Adolf Bernhard Meyer." 



A Plate, half size of life, of Tanysiptera riedeli (male) is given (' Reis- 

 tochten de Geelvinkbaai op Nieuw^-Guinea ') by C. B. H. von Rosenberg. 

 Comparing my bird with this Plate, I observe no difference ; nor do I see 

 any variation between the portraits afforded by Mr. Sharpe and the Baron. 

 The former says the exact locality of T. riedeli is unknown ; and the habitat 

 Celebes is mentioned with a caution. 



Persons need not be ornithologists to be struck with the morphology of 

 the genus Tanysiptera : the wonderful tail, with its ten feathers (pertaining, 

 we are told by the Alcedinidist above named, to this genus alone), the two 

 centre ones elongated and " ornamented with a more or less distinct spatula 

 or racket," strikes every one. 



I quite agree with Mr. Sharpe that Tanysiptera " embraces the most 

 elegant and beautiful of all the Kingfishers." The trivial name " fisher " is 

 certainly most unhappy in this instance, as in many others in which the birds 



