TANYSIPTERA RIEDELI. 179 



dogmatical. If, however, irritability has any thing to do with it, sexual 

 selection in this case vanishes, tenues vanescit in auras ! Instead, then, 

 of a case of sexual selection, we should have a case of sexual rejection ; wx well 

 know that a mutilated bird is scouted by all the rest. 



That birds are nervous, so to speak, I have constantly found. A 

 Palceornis of my own trembles all over at times when I talk to her ; she is 

 not afraid of me, but excited. I have a Snowy Owl QNyctea scandiaca, Linn.) 

 which shakes frequently in the same way ; this is a nervous individual ; and 

 a comrade of the same bird (another Snowy Owl, now living in Brighton) is 

 free from this peculiarity. Persons have said to me, " That bird is ill ; look 

 how it shakes," not knowing the cause, but observing the effect. 



Mr. Sharpe divides the Kingfishers into Piscivorous, Omnivorous, and 

 Reptilivorous ones, and quotes Mr. Wallace on Tanysiptera thus : — " These 

 birds are all inhabitants of thickets or forests where there is soil free from 

 dense vegetation, from which they can pick up insects, small mollusks, or 

 Crustacea. They rest on branches three or five feet from the ground, and 

 dart down on their prey, often with such force as to stick their bill into the 

 ground, as shown by its being covered wdth mud. Theyare said to nest in 

 deserted white-ants' nests, in caves, or holes in banks." 



In the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 1872, p. 1, we have the 

 following : — " An extract was read from a letter addressed to the Viscount 

 Walden, President of the Society, by Mr. T. G. Riedel, Assistant Resi- 

 dent, Gorontalo, Celebes, with reference to the true locality of Tanysiptera 

 riedeli -. — ' Having been informed of your intention of publishing a complete 

 description of the birds of Celebes, and seeing that Mr. G. R. Gray, in his 

 " Hand-list of Birds," has placed Tanysiptera riedeli as an inhabitant of this 

 island, I think it right to mention to you that this bird, described by M. Jules 

 Verreaux in the " Nouvelles Archives du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle " for 

 1866, is really from Kordo, an island in the Bay of Geelvink, and not from 

 Celebes.' " 



