126 



Young (Egypt). Resembles the female, but has the upper parts much blacker, the crown being scarcely 

 marked with white, and the feathers on the throat have faint blackish tips ; band on the breast greyish, 

 margined with black. 



This elegantly coloured Kingfisher inhabits the southern and south-eastern portions of the 

 Western Palsearctic Region, Africa as far south as the Cape colony; and in Asia it occurs 

 throughout India to China. 



In Europe proper it is a rare bird, and is only known to occur in the south-east. Degland 

 (Orn. Eur. i. p. 623) says that it has been "observed and killed in Spain;" but this is evidently 

 an error, as there appears to be no reliable instance of its occurrence there. Malherbe writes 

 (Faune Orn. de la Sic. p. 142) that he bas seen a specimen which, he was assured, had been 

 killed in Sicily ; but neither Doderlein nor Salvadori appear to believe that this species has really 

 occurred in Sicily or Italy. In Greece, Dr. Kriiper states, it is only a rare straggler ; Linder- 

 mayer obtained it once from the island of Mykonos, and Von der Miihle from the island of 

 Thermia ; Erhard also includes it in his list of the birds of the Cyclades as a summer resident. 

 I do not find any record of its occurrence in Turkey, except that, according to Professor von 

 Nordmann, it is met with on the shores of the Sea of Marmora ; but it does not, he says, extend to 

 the northern coast of the Black Sea. In Asia Minor it becomes more common ; and Dr. Kriiper 

 states that it is quite numerous west of Smyrna. Mr. Danford has brought back several examples 

 from Adalia and the Meander valley, where, he informs me, it is common, both on the coast and 

 on inland waters ; and in Palestine it is, according to Canon Tristram, the most conspicuous 

 species in the country, and he met with it there in the winter and also in the summer season. 



In North-east Africa it is resident, and very abundant. Von Heuglin writes (Orn. N.O.- 

 Afr. p. 185) that he " met with it on the coast of Egypt and along the Eed Sea ; but it can 

 scai'cely be a permanent resident of the sea-coast. It is always to be met with, however, in the 

 lagoons of the Delta, on canals, and in flooded fields and meadows, as also on the Nile itself and 

 its tributaries in the south-west to the Djur and Kosanga. In Abyssinia it occurs only in the 

 warm lowlands, and appears to be rarer on the White Nile than in Nubia and Egypt." On the 

 western side of North Africa it does not appear to range so far north as on the eastern side ; for 

 I find no record of its occurrence in Algeria or Tangier ; but it has been obtained at Senegal and 

 Gambia, and Mr. Sharpe possesses an example from the latter locality. It has been obtained 

 at Bissao and Sierra Leone ; Captain Shelley met with it at Cape-Coast ; and Mr. H. T. Ussher 

 says (Ibis, 1874, p. 49) that it is "very common in Fantee and on the Gold Coast generally. . . . 

 In the river Volta they literally swarm, flying in batches out of the bushes as they become 

 startled." Fraser records it from New Calabar and Fernando Po, Jardine from the Bonny river, 

 and DuChaillu obtained it on the Camma and Ogobai rivers, Monteiro in Angola, and Sala 

 records it from Loanda." Mr. Andersson says (B. of Damaral. p. 59) that he does not remember 

 to have seen it in Damara Land proper, but he occasionally met with it along the periodical 

 watercourses and temporary rain-pools of Great Namaqua Land, and he has reason to believe 

 that it may be found permanently on the banks of the Great Fish-River, where large pools 

 of water containing fish exist at all times of the year. Mr. Layard writes (B. of S. Afr. p. 67), 

 in South Africa " it is not uncommon, and is widely distributed. I have seen it about ' Salt 

 River,' near Capetown, but in greater numbers about the rivers, lakes, and estuaries of the 



