ALCYONE. 41 



•^ ALCYONE PULCHRA, GouM. 



Resplendent Kingfisher. 



Gould, Hcmdbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 71, p. 141. 



In a collection of birds recently formed on behalf of the 

 Trustees of the Australian Museum, by Messrs. E. J. Cairn and 

 Robert Grant, in the neighbourhood of Mount Bellenden-Ker, 

 Northern Queensland, are two specimens of Alcyone pulchra. 

 One of them was obtained with great difficulty, on the Barron 

 River, about thirty miles inland from the coast, by Mr. Cairn, 

 who, having shot the bird, had to swim to procure it. The 

 other was captured on the nest by Mr. Grant. It is worthy 

 of note that after comparing these birds with a large series of A. 

 jndchra, from Cape York, Port Essington, and Port Darwin, the 

 flanks are not tinged so deeply with rich lilac as in the specimens 

 from the extreme northern localities ; but are similar to others 

 of the same species procured by Mr. Cairn at Derby, North- 

 Western Australia in 1886. 



Mr. Grant has kindly supplied me with the following information 

 relative to the taking of the nest : — 



"On the 26th December, 1887 at Riverstone, about sixteen 

 miles inland from Cairns, in company with an aboriginal called 

 "Charlie," (native name Euryimba), I saw a Kingfisher fly into 

 a hole in the bank of a creek ; after running forward and placing 

 my hat over the entrance, I with my sheath-knife enlarged the 

 opening, and putting my hand in caught one of the parents ; while 

 engaged in securing it, my attention was drawn away from the 

 nest for a moment, when to my surprise another bird flew out, so 

 both of the parent birds were in the hole at the same time. 

 Afterwards, upon dissection, the bird I captured proved to be the 

 male. The nest, if worthy of the name, was placed near the end of 

 the tunnel, which was about sixteen inches in length and inclined 

 upwards ; it was composed of a few cast fish bones, and small 

 pieces of decayed roots, but in all not sufficient to protect the 

 eggs from the sandy soil at the bottom. The nest contained five 

 eggs, three of which were unfortunately broken." 



