BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 405 



is poorly represented in America, where occur only two genera with 

 about eleven species and subspecies. 



Family ALCEDINID^. 



THE TRUE EIKGFISHEBS. 



=Ispidae Merrem, Abhandl. Berlin Acad., 1812-13 (1816), p. 245. 



'^Haleyonidx Vigors, Zool. Joum., ii, Oct., 1825, 394 (includes Oalbula, Capitol, 

 and Monasal). 



■^Alcedininae Bonaparte, Saggio distr. An. Vert., 1831, 41 (genus Alcedo only). 



=Alcedininae Bonaparte, Prodr. Syst. Om., 1840, 7; Consp. Av., i, 1850, 158. — 

 Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, 1860, 143. — Sundevall, Met. Nat. Av. 

 Disp. Tent., ii, 1873, 95 (English translation, 1889, 175). 



=Alcedidse Kaup, Jardine's Contr. Om., 1849, 119. 



<iAlcedinid(ie Fubbbringeb, TJnters. Morph. Syst. Vog., ii, 1888, 1372, 1584, 1590 

 (excludes Halcyoninse as family Halcyonidae!). 



=Aleedinidae Cabanis, Wiegmann's Archiv Mr Naturg., 1847, pt. i, 344. — Bona- 

 parte, Consp. Av., i, 1850, 153. — Cabanis and Heine, Mus., Heine, ii, 1860, 

 143.— <jRAT, Hand-List, i, 1869, 89.— Stejneqer, Stand. Nat. Hist., iv, 1885, 

 395, 401, in text.— Sharps, Hand-List, ii, 1900, 48. 



The characters of the Family Alcedinidse are the same as those of 

 the superfamily Halcyones (see p. 403), the opinion that only one 

 family is comprised within the latter being so nearly universal that, 

 so far as I am aware, Fuerbringer is the only exception. 



The anatomy of the different generic types of the group has not 

 been sufficiently studied to justify more than a provisional subdi- 

 vision; but authors are pretty well agreed that two subfamilies are 

 easily recognized from external characters alone, these being charac- 

 terized as follows by Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, in volume xviii of the 

 "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," p. 93: 



a. Bill loi^ and slender, compressed, and perceptibly keeled; habits mainly pis- 

 civorous Alcedinlnse. 



6. Bill more or less depressed; culmen rounded or flattened, sometimes even 

 grooved; habits mainly insectivorous or reptilivorous Daceloninse." 



Only the Subfamily Alcedininse is represented in America, by 

 two genera. The following characters are drawn up from the 

 American types and more nearly related Old World forms. 



'^=Alcedinmae Bonaparte, Saggio distr. An. Vert., 1831, 41 (genera Hakyon, Dacelo, 

 Melidora, Choucalcyon, Tanysiptera, Syma, and Ceyx).=Daceloninae Bonaparte, 

 Prodr. Syst. Om., 1840, 7; Consp. Av., i, 1850, 153; Gray, Hand-list, i, 1869, 89; 

 Gadow, Bronn's Thier-Reich, Vog., ii, 1893, 231; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., 

 xvii, 1892, 173; Hand-list, ii, 1900, 52.=Halcyoninae Cabanis, Wiegmann's Archiv 

 fiSr Naturg., i, 1847, 344; Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., ii, 1860, 151.= Halcyonidae 

 Fuerbringer, TJnters. Morph. Syst. Vog., ii, 1888, 1567. 



The Halcyoninse are confined to the Eastern Hemisphere, where they extend from 

 Africa to Australia and Polynesia, being most numerously represented and most 

 diversified in form in the Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan Subregions. According 

 to Sharpe's "Hand-list" (ii, 1900, 52-63) the subfamily comprises 15 genera and 149 

 species, the Alcedininse containing only 5 genera and 51 species. 



