MALAYAN ORNITHOLOGY. 137 
out the country. I obtained it in Pérak, Penang, Moar, Malacca, 
and Singapore. 
As regards its habits, i¢ has much in common with the White- 
breasted species, frequenting the same localities, and, like it, feed- 
ing on frogs, small fishes, and crabs ; butit can at once, even ata 
distance, be distinguished from that bird by the rich purple colour 
of its plumage; also it is rather larger. One evening in November, 
while Snipe-shooting in the swampy paddy-fields of Singapore, I 
saw one of these purple Kingfishers perched on a post which stood 
eight or nine feet out of a large pool formed by the damming-up 
of a stream which flowed through the swamp; suddenly it darted 
down with a splash into the water, then returned to its former 
position with its prey, a small frog, which, holding it in its beak by 
one leg, it despatched by shaking it violently from side to side. 
At this stage of the proceeding I shot the bird, as I wanted to be 
sure as to its species and food. 
Hatcyon cutoris (Bodd.). The White-collared Kingfisher. 
Particularly plentifulon Pulau Battam, Pulau Nongsa, and all 
the small islands near Singapore; also common along the mangrove- 
girt coasts of the mainland; in fact, it appears to confine itself 
to the salt or brackish water, and is never met with far from the 
sea. 
Besides restricting itself so entirely to the sea-coasts, it has 
other characteristics which seem to separate it from the paddy- 
field and fresh-water Halcyons: unlike most of them, its beak is 
black, rather short, and the gonys distinctly curves upwards 
throughout its entire length. 
CARCLINEUTES PULCHELLUS (Horsf.). 
By no means rare; but of its habits 1 know nothing. 
ALCEDO MININTING (Horsf.). 
Not very scarce; I shot it in Perak, and often saw it about the 
lake in the Botanical Gardens, Singapore. 
Creyx ruFrporsa (Strickl.). The Three-toed Ruddy Kingfisher. 
By no means common, though I obtained it at both Malacca 
and Singapore; at the latter place, during the wet and stormy 
weather prevalent at the breaking of the S. W. monsoon, many 
birds used to appear, which were rarely met with at other seasons 
