﻿Young. Similar to the adults, but the bill short, and the breast feathers distinctly 

 edged with greenish blue, very conspicuous in some lights. 



Hab. Cairo {Lord), Scanderoon ((S. Stafford Allen, spec, in mils. R.B.S.), Suez 

 (Heuglin ), Xubia (mus. Lugd.), Sinatic Peninsula, Wady Fieran and Wady Gharandel (Lord), 

 Caucasus, Persia, Altai Mountains (Schrenk), Central Asia (mus. E.B.S.), India generally 

 and Ceylon (Ml), Burmah (Blyth), Penang (Cantor), Malacca (Wallace), Java (mus. 

 Lugd), Flores (Wallace), Timor (mus. Lugd.), Labuan (Motley), Philippine Islands 

 (Cuming), Gilolo ( Wallace), Siam (Sclwmburgk), China generally (Swinhoe), Formosa 

 (Swinhoe), Hainan (Swinhoe), Japan (Temminck and Schlegel), Eastern Siberia (Radde), 

 Amoor Land (Schrenk). 



However nearly allied the Little Indian Kingfisher may be to our Common Kingfisher 

 of Europe, there can be no doubt that it is specifically distinct, and is easily distinguishable 

 by its smaller size, longer bill, and the more intense blue colouring of the adult birds. In 

 habits also it seems to differ slightly from Alceda ispida, for, whereas this last-named bird 

 is as partial to stagnant ponds and brooks as to running streams, its Indian congener 

 appears to prefer the latter and is seldom found in the vicinity of stagnant water. 



The most painstaking researches into the history of the present species that I have 

 been able to find are those published by Dr. L. von Schrenk in his celebrated work on the 

 Zoology of Amoor Land, but he has unfortunately wasted his energy in endeavouring to 

 prove the inutility of separating A. bengalensis from A. ispida, all the while admitting the 

 distinctions of general size and length of bill, which are sufficient to separate it as a 

 species. We may, however, be doing an injustice to Dr. von Schrenk, if we do not give 

 the substance of his argument in his own words. We therefore transcribe from his work 

 the following remarks which bear upon the point in question : — 



" There is no doubt that the form of Alcedo ispida, which since Gmelin's time has by 

 main' authors been considered to be a distinct species under the name of Alcedo bengalensis; 

 to which also the Japanese form belongs, is* only a variety of A. ispida. Our Amoor 

 specimens of Kingfishers, which exactly agree with the Japanese form, and which we have 

 compared with specimens of A. ispida from the Altai, Caucasus, Persia and Western 

 Europe, comfirm us in this opinion. * * * Even those Ornithologists who separate 

 ^1. bengalensis from A. ispida, agree that in colour and marking there is no difference 

 between them. * * * Our Amoor specimens agree so closely in intensity and distri- 

 bution of colour with specimens from Western Europe, Caucasus, and Persia, that we can 

 observe not even a climatic difference. The old males from the Amoor are distinguished 

 by an equally intense blue and green on the upper parts, and not less intense rust-red on 

 the under parts than in birds from the above-mentioned localities. Compared with both an 

 adult specimen from the Altai Mountains seems however much paler, particularly as regards 

 the rust-red of the under parts. In the young birds of the Amoor, as in the European 

 species, the blue-green of the upper parts is less handsome and the rust-red on the breast 

 dashed with a greenish-grey tinge. A similar specimen we have in our museum from 

 Japan, received from Temminck, and it agrees with the young specimen from the Amoor. 

 In lln freshly-killed young from the Amoor the beak is blackish with a whitish tip, iris 

 brown, feet yellowish-brown. There is, however, a difference in the size of our bird. Much 

 as all observers testify to its similarity of colours and markings to A. ispida, they equally 

 agree as to its smaller size and proportionately longer bill. It is indeed only in this respect 

 that it differs, and it is on these characters alone that A. bengalensis is founded." 



Dr. von Schrenk then gives a table of measurements to shew the gradual variation of 

 a series of specimens of A. bengalensis towards A. ispida, and even by this table it is evident 

 tlrnt the bill of the latter species, when fully adult, does not equal in length that of the 

 young A. bengalensis, and he contends that all the arguments brought forward serve to 



