236 



THE BIRDS OF ATJSTEALIA 



Genus Dacelo. 

 Confined to Australia and Southern New Guinea. 



Key to the Species. 



Tail alike in both sexes, rufous barred with black. X>. gigas. 

 Tail of male blue, of female cinnamon rufous barred witb blue 



Total length 17 inches D. leachii. 



Total length 15 inches. D. cervina. 



The Laughing Kingfisher (Kookaburra). 



Dacelo gigas. 

 Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. 

 Crown of head brown, freckled with rufous on the forehead, the 

 feathers forming a crest, the long crest feathers edged with white margins; 



Sydney Zoo. 



Kookaburras: Dacelo gigas. 



F. George, Photographer. 



a very broad whitish band over the eye and encircling the neck, followed 

 by a band of dark brown, and this by a broad white collar round the 

 sides of the neck and hind neck; above generally brown, the upper back 

 white with dusky brown cross bars, the lower back and rump greenish- 

 blue; tail rufous barred with black, the under surfaces dingy white 

 freckled with brown. Total length 17 inches, culmen 2.5, wing 8.55, tail 

 6.3, tarsus 1. 



Leach's Kingfisher. 



Dacelo leachii. 



Queensland and Northern Territory. 



Head white, streaked with brown; a silvery blue patch on the wing, 

 scarcely evident in D. gigas. The male has a blue tail, the female a red 

 one, barred with blue and with white tips to the feathers. Otherwise, and 

 in dimensions, very like JO. gigas. 



