472 ALCBDINID^. 



Fam. ALCEDINID-ffil. 



The members of this family are spread over the tropical and temperate regions of 

 the globe, by far the majority of the species occurring in the Austro-Malayan and 

 Papuan subregions — India, Africa, and Australia being fairly represented. America, 

 both north and south, with its vast river-systems, which one would have thought 

 would have maintained an immense variety of Kingfishers, is only tenanted by a single 

 genus, shared with the Ethiopian and Indian regions, and about ten or eleven species 

 and subspecies. 



Mr. Sharpe, who has paid great attention to this family, and has published not only 

 an illustrated Monograph of it, but also the portion of the ' Catalogue of Birds in the 

 British Museum ' containing an account of the Alcedinidae, divides the family into two 

 subfamilies — the Alcedininse and Daceloninse. Twenty genera are included in these 

 groups, and these again contain about 200 species and " subspecies." Only one of the 

 genera, Ceryle (belonging to the Alcedininse), is found in America, one species having 

 a wide range throughout the northern continent, the rest being South- American birds 

 spreading into Central America and Mexico, and in some cases beyond these limits 

 into the frontier States of North America. 



CERYLE. 



Ceryle, Boie, Isis, 1828, p. 316; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvii. p. 107. 

 Streptoceryle, Bp. Consp. Vol. Anis. p. 10 (1854). 



With the exception of Ceryle. alcyon, Avhich is a North-American species, all the 

 American members of Ceryle belong to the southern continent, and range northwards 

 through Central America and Mexico. In the Old World we find Ceryle rudis and its 

 close ally C. varia in the countries bordering the Eastern Mediterranean and thence 

 eastwards to India; C. lugubris in India, China, and Japan; and the fine large 

 C. maxima and its ally C. sharpii over the greater part of the African continent. 



The comparatively long tail of the species of Ceryle distinguishes them from all 

 Kingfishers except Pelargopsis, which are again distinguished by their very robust bills. 



a. Corpus supra laete schistaceum hand nitidum. 



1. Ceryle alcyon. 



The Kingfisher, Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carol, i. p. 69, t. 69 (1731) '. 

 The American Kingfisher, Edwards, Nat. Hist. Birds, iii.p. 115, t. 115 (1750) •^ 

 Alcedo alcyon, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 180 (1766) '. 



Ceryle alcyon, Moore, P. Z. S. 1859, p. 53 ^ ; Sol. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 131 ' ; Scl. P. Z. S. 1859, 

 p. 367 ^ 1860, p. 252 ^ Lawr. Ann. Lyc.N.Y. vii. p.318»; ix. p. 118"; Mem. Bost. Soc'. 



