

DACELO TYRO, g.r. Gr 



Mantled Kingfisher. 



ay. 



Dacelo tyro, G. R. Gray, Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xxvi. p. 171, Aves, pi. cxxxiii.— J. E. and G. R. Gray's Cat. of 

 Mammalia and Birds of New Guinea in Coll. Brit. Mus., p. 19. 



I have in my collection two very fine specimens of this bird, both of which were procured by Mr. Wallace : 

 one of them is much smaller than the other, and is also much darker in all its fulvous tints both of the 

 spottings of the head and the under surface generally : this individual is marked a male, while the larger 

 and more delicately coloured specimen has the feminine indicative on the label. The colouring of the tail 

 in the male specimen is also dark bluish-green, while that of the female is pure green ; these differences in 

 the colouring of the tail were also pointed out by Mr. Gray. For a long period I have fancied that the 

 male of our own Kingfisher (Alcedo ispidd) was smaller than the female ; and a question of some interest 

 has now to be solved, — whether or not the same law reigns through the entire family. The two specimens 

 referred to above are both figured in the accompanying plate, the hinder figure representing the male, and 

 the front one the opposite sex. 



The spotted feathers of the head from the nape downwards are elongated and spread out, forming a kind 

 of mantle over the back ; hence the trivial name I have given to the bird. 



The Dacelo tyro must be regarded as one of the finest of Mr. Wallace's discoveries. Its true habitat is 

 the Aru Islands, to which it is probably restricted. 



The following is Mr. Gray's description : — 



Male. — "Top and sides of the head and back of the neck black, spotted and banded with fulvous white; 

 nape and upper part of the back fulvous white, banded and margined with black ; scapulars black ; wing- 

 coverts black, broadly margined with shining blue; quills and tail black, margined externally with dull 

 blue ; upper part of the back black, the lower part glossy silvery blue ; under surface pale fulvous, lightest 

 on the throat ; upper mandible black, the lower one pale horn-colour." 



Female. — "Quills and tail greenish blue." 



Young. — "Beneath each feather margined with black; bill black, tipped with pale horn-colour; other- 

 wise the same." 



The figures are of the natural size. 



