HAWAIIAN BIBDa. 77 



ACEDINID^. KINGFISHER FAMILY. 



Ceryle alcyon (Linn.). Belted Kingfisher. 



Early in November of 1901 the attention of Mr. Harry Patten, 

 of Hakalau, was called by some natives to the presence of a pair 

 of strange birds in the mouth of Hakalau Gulch. Mr. Patten vis- 

 isted the locality, and at once identified the birds as belted king- 

 fishers. They seemed to be quite at home amid their novel sur- 

 roundings, perching on a telephone wire much of the time, and 

 evidently reaping a satisfactory harvest of small fish from the 

 stream. 



One of them, however, disappeared, having probably been shot, 

 and_ on the 27lh of the month Mr. W. K. Andrews, of Honomu, 

 went to the gulch, and secured the remaining bird, kindly present- 

 ing it to the writer. 



It proved to be an adult female, and as the other bird is said to 

 have been somewhat differently colored it was, no doubt, a male. 



So far as the writer is aware this is the first reported occurrence 

 of the species in the islands. It is in the late fall months that most 

 of the strays from the American coast reach the group, and this 

 pair was undoubtedly blown off the coast during the fall migra- 

 tion, and lured hither in the company of plover or other regular 

 migrants to the islands. 



The occurrences of stray mainland birds in the group is of great 

 interest, and should always be reported by sportsmen, to whom 

 the knowledge usuall)- comes, since they indicate the manner and 

 the sources whence the original avian inhabitants of the islands 

 were derived, It is rarely that strays reach the islands in pairs, as 

 these kingfishers appear to have :done, and, had the birds chanced 

 to reach a more isolated section, it is possible they might have 

 chosen to remain and so have founded a colony of their kind. 



Description. — Adult male. Above bluish plumbeous; tail with tranverse 

 white markings; primaries with spots of same; forehead with white spot; 

 below whfte, with band of plumbeous across breast; white of throat en- 

 circling hind-neck. Female similar, but sides and flanks riifous, with 

 an interrupted band of same across belly. Length 11.00-14.50. - 



