340 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



islands, since Mr. Swainson possesses specimens sent from St. Vincent's by the 

 Rev. Lansdowne Guilding. It breeds in holes dug in the precipitous banks of 

 a river to the depth of several feet, laying five roundish, white eggs, one inch 

 three lines in length. — R. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a specimen, killed on the Slave River, lat. 59°. 



Colour. — Top of the head, crest, back, scapulars, wing coverts, lesser quills, borders 

 of the tail feathers, a broad irregular breast band, and blotches ,on the flanks, pale bluish- 

 grey. Central stripes and tips of the crown and crest, the shafts of the dorsal plumage, the 

 greater quills, their coverts, the inner webs of the secondaries, and the tail, pitch-black. A 

 small spot before the eye, another on the under eyelid, some specks on the tips of the greater 

 coverts, the basal halves of the primaries, outer tips and indented inner borders of the second- 

 aries, twelve narrow interrupted bars on the tail, and the under plumage, white. The bill is 

 bluish-black, its base beneath yellowish. — The female differs in being an inch and a half 

 shorter, with a proportion ably shorter bill, and in having the colour of her plumage more 

 lively, more white on the wing, and the bluish-grey breast band edged with chestnut-brown, 

 and some irregular blotches of reddish-orange on the flanks and belly. — R. 



Form, typical of the American division, which is distinguished in all the species we have 

 examined by a minute spurious quill at the base of what appears to be the first : the tail is 

 also considerably longer than in the Blue Kingfishers of the Old World, and nearly all the 

 quill feathers are very distinctly mucronate. The hind toe and claw is much shorter in this 

 species than the smallest of the anterior toes. In other respects it does not deviate from the 

 European type. — Sw. 



Dimensions. 





Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 



Length, total . 



13 



9 



Length of bill to rictus 



. 2 



10 



Length of middle nail 



. 



4 



„ of tail 



3 



10 



„ of naked thigh . 







4 



„ of hind toe 



. 



2 



., of wing 



. 6 



C 



„ of tarsus . 



. 



4* 



,, of its nail . 



. 



3 



,, of bill above 



2 



o 



,, of middle toe 







8 









