HALCYON PILEATA. 



(THE BLACK-CAPPED PURPLE KINGFISHER.) 



Alcedo pileata, Bodd. Tabl. PI. Enl. 41 (1783). 



Halcyon pileata, Gray & Mitchell, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 79 (1844) ; Sharpe, Mon. Alced. 

 p. 169, pi. 62 (1868-70); Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 424; Hume, Str. Feath. 

 1875, p. 51; Armstrong, ibid. 1876, p. 306; Sharpe, Ibis, 1876, p. 33. 



Alcedo atricapilla, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 453 (1788). 



Da eel o pileata, Schl. Mus. P.-B. Alced. p. 27 (1863) ; id. Vog. Ned. Ind. Alced. pp. 22, 54, 

 pi. 9 (1864). 



Halcyon atricapillus, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. no. 204, p. 47 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 171 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. p. 124 

 (1854); Gould, B. of Asia, pt. xii. (1860); Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 226 (1862) ; Hume, 

 Str. Feath. 1874, p. 168. 



Eniomobia pileata, Salvad. Ucc. di Borneo, p. 102 (1874). 



Martin Pecheur de la Chine, Buff. PL Enl. 673 (1770) ; The Black-capped Kingfisher ; Black- 

 winged Kingfisher. 



Udang, Malay ; Burong udang, Sumatra (Raffles). 



Adult male and female (Burmah). "Length 11*7 to 12-5 inches; wing 4-9 to 5 - 3, expanse 18 - to 18 - 75 ; tail from 



vent 3-3 to 3-75 ; tarsus 0-6 to 0'7 ; bill to gape 2-9 to 3-15 " {Armstrong). 

 Layard's Ceylonese specimen measures 5 - 4, a male shot by Mr. Oates 5 - 3, and two examples in my own collection 



4 - 8 and 54 inches (the former is an immature bird). 

 Iris reddish brown, dark brown, or olive-brown ; bill deep coral-red ; legs and feet dull red, brownish on the front of 



tarsus ; claws " horny brown." 

 Head, face, ear-coverts, nape, and wing-coverts coal-black ; back, scapulars, upper surface of tail, primary-coverts, and 



the outer webs of the secondaries and tertials ultramarine-blue, very brilliant on the interscapular region, and 



changing into a lustrous smalt-blue on the upper tail-coverts ; a broad band of white across the hind neck, 



immediately beneath which the blue of the back is shaded with black ; terminal half of primaries and tips and 



inner webs of secondaries dull black, the basal half of the former delicate bluish, or bluish white on the outer 



webs and pure white on the inner. 

 Chin, fore neck, centre of chest, and upper breast white ; sides of chest and fore neck, flanks, lower breast, abdomen, 



under tail-, and under wing-coverts fine tawny rufous, blending into the white of the fore neck, and often tinging 



the hind-neck collar ; under surface of tail blackish. 



Young. Birds of the year have the black of the upper parts and the blue of the back and rump less pure, and the 

 sides of the chest and breast, as also the feathers of the hind-neck collar, marked with crescentic tippings of 

 blackish brown ; but in some examples the latter part is striated with brown instead of barred. These crescentic 

 markings appear to remain until the bird is fully aged, as they are present in many specimens which have the upper 

 surface in beautiful adult feather. 



Distribution. — This lovely Kingfisher has been only once recorded from Ceylon. Layard speaks of 

 one specimen having been shot in the island of Valenny, near Jaffna. This bird, which must have been a 

 straggler driven to the coasts of Ceylon by the northerly winds of December, is now in the Poole collection 

 and is in a fair state of preservation. Its occurrence in Ceylon is very interesting, as it is a rare bird in 

 India, and particularly so in the south. Jerdon shot a specimen at Tellichery, on the Malabar coast, and 

 saw othei's from the same locality ; he speaks of it having been procured as high up the Ganges as Monghyr, 

 although it is rare in Bengal. It affects wooded country near the sea, and consequently is more common in 



