KINGSFISHER. 59 



* * WITH THREE TOES. 



57 .— TRIDACTYLE KINGSFISHER. 



Alcedo tridactyla, Ind. Orn. i. 260. Lin. Mant. 1771. 524. Gm.Lin.i. 459. Pall. 



Spic. 6. t. 10. f. 1. Vosm.Monog. 1768. t. 1. 

 Alcedo tridactyla, Lin. Trans, xiii. p. 174. (Ceyx Lacep.) 

 Three-toed Kingsfisher, Gen. Syn. ii. 645. Shaiv's Zool. viii. p. 104. 



LESS than the Common Kingsfisher ; length four inches. Bill 

 square, yellowish white ; crown ferruginous, with a violet tinge, 

 paler on the forehead ; on the temples an azure spot, and beneath it 

 a longitudinal white one ; between the shoulders and tips of the wing 

 feathers azure; cheeks, and under parts of the body, yellowish white; 

 throat pure white ; quills ferruginous black ; the inner margins and 

 tail ferruginous. 



One, supposed to be the female, had the crown, rump, and some 

 of the feathers of the back tinged with violet ; the breast more fer- 

 ruginous, and the white on the belly more pure than in the others. Bill 

 and legs the same in both, and both furnished only with three toes, 

 two before and one behind. — Found by Dr. Horsfield, in Java, there 

 called Chuchack-urang. 



Mr. Temminck, in his Analysis, joins the Purple Kingsfisher 

 with this bird as one species, which can scarcely be admitted, as the 

 former has certainly four toes on the feet, and the latter but three, as 

 may be seen both in Pallas's Spic. and Vosm. JWonog. but perhaps 

 Mr. T. has learned, that the purple one varies in individuals, in 

 respect to the number of toes, and if so, that circumstance has not 

 before come to our knowledge. We see a variation in regard to the 

 number of toes in more than one of the Woodpecker Genus, but this 



I 2 



