







ACTENOIDES CONCRETUS. 



Sumatran Kingfisher. 



Dacelo concreta, Temm. PI. Col. 346 (1825).— D'Orb. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. t. 4 (1849). — Schleg. Mus. P.-B. Alced. 



p. 26 (1863) —Id. Vog. Nederl. Ind. pp. 25, 27, pi. 8 (1864).— Swinh. Ibis, 1873, p. 231— Schleg. 



Revue Alced. Mus. P.-B. p. 18 (1876). 

 Halcyon varia, Eyton, P. Z. S. 1839, p. 101.— Cass. U.S. Expl. Exp. Aves, p. 223 (1858). 

 concreta, Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 79 (1846).— Id. List of Fissirostres in B. M. p. 52 (1848).— Bp. Consp. i. 



p. 154 (1850).— Cass. Cat. Hale. Phil. Mus. p. 11 (1852).— Pelz. Reis. Novar. Vog. pp. 41, 161 



(1865).— Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 93 (1869).— Sharpe, Monogr. Alced. p. 219, pi. 83. 

 Todiramphus varius, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xv. p. 11 (1846).— Id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 47 (1849). 

 Paralcyon concreta, Reich. Handb. Alced. i. p. 36, Taf. ccccxxi. fig. 3145, Taf. ccccxxii. figs. 3145-46 (1851). 

 Garidagrus concretus, Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein. Th. ii. p. 161 (I860).— Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 102. 



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In the different countries of the world in which I have lived, it has been my lot to see and to study members 

 of the two groups of Kingfishers which Mr. Sharpe calls " fish-eating" and " reptilivorous." Our own Al 

 cedo ispida is the most typical example of the former group, while perhaps the great Laughing Jackasses ol 

 Australia are the extreme representatives of the other forest-loving reptile-eating Kingfishers. These two 

 sections, into which the family has been divided by Mr. Bowdler Sharpe in his * Monograph,' 

 appear to me to rest on natural grounds; but I cannot follow him in his arrangement of some of the 

 intermediate forms, such as the genus Halcyon &c. Nature has here provided us with several groups, each 

 possessing distinctive characters as regards colour &c, which seem to me to afford strong grounds for 

 generic separation. Thus I would follow Lord Tweeddale and Count Salvadori in separating the green 

 Kingfishers as Sauropatis; and I feel justified in keeping the three species now figured under the one generic 

 heading of Actenoides, believing, as I do, that their peculiar coloration and the character of the feathers 

 point them out as being all closely and generically allied. 



I regret that there is nothing recorded of the habits of this fine Kingfisher, which is a native of Malacca, 

 Sumatra, and Borneo. 



The following careful description is drawn from Mr. Sharpe's ' Monograph,' with the single alteration 

 that the bird which he describes as "young" is here considered to be the old female, Mr. Swinhoe (/. c.) 

 having procured a properly sexed specimen of the hen bird in this plumage at Penang. 



" Head dull green, with a line of brighter green from above the eye encircling the nape ; below this bright 

 green circlet a broad line of black ; eyebrow and ear-coverts pale rufous ; a line of feathers from base of 

 bill down the sides of the neck deep ultramarine ; back of neck deep sienna, below which the back is black ; 

 upper part of the back and scapularies rich ultramarine; lower part of the back very bright cobalt ; quills 

 brown, the inner web pale rufous at the base; the whole of the wing-coverts and the outer web of the quills 

 rich ultramarine, uniform with the scapularies ; tail blue above, black beneath ; under surface of the body 

 rich sienna, the middle of the abdomen white; upper mandible black, fine rich ochreous buff on the under 

 mandible and edge of the upper; feet yellow. Total length 9 inches, culmen 1'9, wing 4*5, tail 2*2, tarsus 

 0*5, middle toe 0*75. 



"Female. — Similar to the adult male, but has the wing-coverts and scapulars spotted with ochre." 



In the Plate are represented an adult pair of birds, of the natural size. 









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