1846.] or Little Known Species of Birds. 11 



Hoopoes. This group is treated of in XIV, 189. I have now to add 

 that the Tenasserim Hoopoe equals Upupa epops in size, but is consider- 

 ably more rufous, and conspicuously so on the crest, which resembles 

 that of U. minor of S. Africa : one specimen is also very rufous at the 

 shoulder of the wing, and another moderately so ; bill of each two 

 inches and a half to forehead; and wing five and a half to five and 

 three-quarters. 



Halcyonidce. — Todiramphus varius ; Halcyon varia, Eyton, P. Z. S. 

 1839, p. 101. What I take to be the adult male, (and perhaps the 

 adult of either sex,) of this species, is a beautiful bird, the colouring of 

 which serves to connect Todiramphus (as exemplified by T. collaris and 

 T. sacer,) with Halcyon atricapillus (v. albiventer of Scopoli, a name 

 too inappropriate to be retained) ; but the beak is strictly that of Todiram- 

 phus. Length about nine inches, or nearly so ; of wing four inches, 

 and tail two and three-eighths ; bill to forehead (in rather the larger of 

 two specimens,) an inch and three-quarters ; and the gape two and a 

 quarter; tarse five-eighths of an inch. Cap green, rufescent on forehead, 

 and margined posteriorly with verditer ; a broad black stripe commences 

 at the lores, and meets its opposite behind ; above this is a slight rufous 

 supercilium, and below it a broad rufous streak continued to the nape, 

 and comprising the lower ear-coverts ; below this again, is a very large 

 rich purplish- blue moustache, commencing at the base of the lower 

 mandible : the nape and breast are brilliant ferruginous, paling on the 

 throat and belly, and the mantle, wings, and tail, are deep purplish- 

 blue, each feather touched with ultramarine- blue on the wings, while 

 the rump and upper tail- coverts are vivid verditer : bordering the ferru- 

 ginous of the nape is a band of deep black. Bill dusky above, the rest 

 apparently bright yellow ; and legs probably coral-red. From Malacca. 

 In XIV, 1 90, 1 described a new Kingfisher from Darjeeling, by the name 

 Alcedo grandis ; which otherwise resembling A. ispida, is as much 

 larger than that bird, as A. bengalensis is smaller: A. ispida is common 

 in Afghanistan. Another closely allied species, which perhaps has not 

 yet been distinguished from A. bengalensis, inhabits the Moluccas, and 

 which I may provisionally call A. moluccensis: this differs from A. 

 bengalensis in having a vertically much deeper bill, and from all its allied 

 species in having the ear-coverts not rufous, but deep indigo-blue ; the 

 mottled feathers of the crown and neck, moustache, and wings, are also 



