180 TANYSIPTERA RIEDELI. 



Mr. Sharpe informs me that the original specimen was sent to the Paris 

 Museum, and named after M. Riedel, an attache of the French Government. 

 Coming from Celebes, it was supposed to belong to that island. 



Mr. Sharpe remarks in his monograph, " It will most likely be found to 

 be an inhabitant of one of the Moluccas, and had been brought to Celebes by- 

 some native trader." 



In 1870 Rosenberg, the Dutch traveller, Avent to Soek (the other name 

 for Kordo), and brought away a considerable number of specimens of his 

 Tanysiptera, which he called Tanysiptera schlegeli in his letters home to Prof. 

 Schlegel ; the latter has, very properly, in his recent revision of the King- 

 fishers, united the latter species with the older one, T. riedeli. 



Mr. Sharpe has furnished me with the synonymy : — 



" Tanysiptera riedeli, Verr. Nouv. Arch. Mus. ii. Bull. p. 23, pi. 3. fig. 1 (1866) ; Gray, 

 Hand-l. B. i. p. 90 (1869) ; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 631 ; idpionogr. Alced. pi. Ill 

 (1871) ; Riedel, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 1 ; Walden, Tr. Z. S. viii. p. 45 (1872) ; Sehl. Mus. 

 P.-B. Revue Alced. p. 40 (1874) ; Rosenb. Reist. Nieuw-Giunea, pi. xiv. fig. 2 (1875). 



" Tanysiptera schlegeli, Rosenb. in Schl. Obs. Zool. N. T. D. iv. p. 12 (1871). 



" Hah. Soek Island, Geelvink Bay." 



The total length of my Queenhuntress is, from tip of the beak to the end 

 of the tail, exactly 14 inches. It is observable that the tail has short webs 

 along the rhachis, all the way between the spatulse and the rump ; while in 

 the feathers of Parotia sexpennis, springing from the head of the bird (out of 

 its reach, therefore), there is nothing but the bare rhachis and the spatula 

 at the end. 



