298 A Contribution to Malayan Ornithology. [No. 4, 



on both webs, their coverts being also spotted, and partially tipped 

 with bine. Tail long, black, the inner webs of the feathers with 

 transverse white spots, the onter ones with bine spots, this color 

 diminishing on the outer tail feathers and becoming mixed with 

 white, but on the outermost tail feathers it is replaced by rusty. Chin 

 and throat pure white, breast and vent with their sides and includ- 

 ing the lower wing coverts and the lower tail-coverts pale rusty. 

 The fourth quill is the longest, and the first about half the length of 

 the fourth ; bill coral red, conical, almost uniformly and rather 

 flatly arched above, upper mandible laterally somewhat projecting 

 at the base, slightly curved at the tip ; outer toe slightly shorter 

 than the middle one, and the inner only f of the length of the lat- 

 ter ; wing 3£ inches ; tail 2£" ; bill at front If", from gape very 

 nearly 2". 



Mr. Blyth (Cat. Asiat. Soc. Museum, p. 46, No. 198) al- 

 ready records this species from Malacca ; it also occurs in the Wel- 

 lesley Province and extends into Tenasserim. In one $ from the 

 last localit}*- the brown collar nearly joins posteriorly, as in the 

 Java bird, in two others from Tenasserim the brown is almost 

 entirely separated above ; but in no specimen have I seen it so 

 strongly developed on the upper neck, as shewn in H o r s- 

 f i e 1 d 's figure. 



The female does not apparently differ in size ; it is dark or black- 

 ish brown above, barred across throughout with rufous brown ; be- 

 low white with blackish cross bars on the lower breast, these bars 

 being mostly developed at the sides of it and gradually disappear- 

 ing towards the vent ; lower tail coverts white. 



Horsfield placed this species in the genus Dacelo, princi- 

 pally on account of the peculiar coloration of the bird ; the bill is 

 shorter and more regularly depressly conical, but barely more hook- 

 ed at the tip than in most typical species of Halcyon, from which it 

 can hardly be generically separated. 



Fam. NECTARINIBJE. 



36. ^Ethopyga Lathami, J a r d i n e. 



1842, Nat. library, XIII, pp. 233 and 268, (an J0. siparaja, E a f f. 

 seu 2E. mysticalis, T e mm.) 



