30 KINGSPISHER. 



Inhabits Otaheite, and there called Erooro ; is held sacred,* and 

 not allowed to be killed or taken. 



26.— BLACK-WINGED KINGSFISHER. 



Alcedo melanoptera, Lin. Trans, xiii. p. 174. 



LENGTH ten inches. The head and scapulars are black ; back, 

 rump, and belly blue ; quills sea-green, tips and under sides brown, 

 marked with broad white bands ; the throat, and a collar round the 

 neck sooty bay colour; tail sea-green, beneath brownish. 



Inhabits Java, known there by the name ot Tengke-urang. 



27.— BLACK-CAPPED KINGSFISHER. 



Alcedo atricapilla, Ind. Orn.\. 251. Gm.Lin.'i. 453. 

 Martin-pecheur, a Coiffe noire, Buf. vii. 189. PI. enl. 673. 

 Black-capped Kiiigsfisher, Gen. Syn. ii. 624. Nat. Misc. pi. 465. Shaiv's Zool. 

 viii. p. 70. 



LENGTH ten inches. Bill large, and of a bright red ; the head 

 and hind part of the neck are black ; back, tail, and middle of the 

 wings deep glossy violet-blue; the shoulders, wing coverts, and ends 

 of the wings black ; throat, fore part of the neck, and breast 

 white f encircling the neck at the lower part near the back ; belly 

 pale rufous; legs red. 



Inhabits China. 



* These birds are probably esteemed as sacred, on account of their being seen fre- 

 quently flying about the Morais or burial places. — Parkin. Journ. 70. But the Kiiigsfisher 

 is not the only animal held sacred by the Islanders, as Herons, Rats, and Flies, enter the 



same list. — Parkin. Journ. Errat. p. 22. Forst. Voy. i. 519. Women and children were 



most afraid of doing injury to the Kiiigsfisher ; yet all persons did not mind it, for some of 

 the natives were ready to point them out for our people to shoot at. — Forst. Voy. i. 378. 

 1 fancy, therefore, the whole was no more than what is paid by tender minds to the Red- 

 breast and Wren, in England, only carried to a greater length. 



t One in Lord Mountnorris's drawings had the collar and under parts very pale rufous. 



