﻿ALCEDO MOLUCCENSIS. 



(MOLUCCA KINGFISHER.) 



Alcedo moluccensis 

 Alcedo minor moluccensis 



Alcedo ispida, var 



A. torque pectorali nulla : abdomine rufo : tectricibus alarum conspicue cyaneo apicatis : regione 

 parotica nigra cyaneo notata : minor : kctissime cyaneo : scapularibus cyaneis. 



Hab. in subregione Austro-Malayana. 



Male. Head crested, black, profusely barred with rich cobalt; cheeks and ear-coverts 

 black longitudinally streaked with rich cobalt; back very deep cobalt; scapularies and 

 wing-coverts dark greenish cobalt; the latter having a spot of brighter cobalt on the apex 

 of each feather; primary coverts blackish washed externally with greenish blue; quills 

 brownish black, the inner web very pale rufous at the base, the external web, especially of 

 the secondaries broadly washed with deep blue ; a spot in front of the eye pale reddish; 

 throat and a patch of feathers along the sides of the neck, white fringed with pale rufous; 

 rest of the under-surface of the body ochreous-chesnut, the upper part of the sides of the 

 breast having a conspicuous bright blue patch of feathers ; bill black; feet vermilion. 



Female. Precisely similar to the male, but perhaps of not quite such an intense blue, 

 and always to be distinguished by the orange mark at the base of the under mandible. 



Hab. Flores (Wallace), Celebes ( Wallace, Fraser), Bouru ( Wallace), Gilolo (Wallace), 

 Batchian (Rosenberg), Mysol (Rosenberg), Salawati {Rosenberg), Ceram (Rosenberg), Amboina 

 (Rosenberg), New Ireland (G. R. Gray). 



The present species belongs to the same section of the genus Alcedo as A. grandis, 

 having like this bird the ear-coverts blue. This peculiarity at once distinguishes it from 

 Alcedo bengalensis which is its nearest ally, and of which it seems to be the representative 

 species in the Moluccas. 



Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. XV., p. 11 (1846). 

 Schl. Mus. Pays Bas, Alced. p. 8 (1863); et Vog. 



Ned. Ind. Alced. pp. 5, 44, pi. 1 (1864). 

 Lesson, Voy. Coq. I, p. 695 (1826). 



Additional references.— A Icedo mohiccensis, Blyth, Cat. Birds Mus. As. Soc. Bong. p. 49 (1849); Eoich. 

 Handb. Alced. I, p. 5 (1851) ; lloseub. Journ. f. Orn. 1864, p. 118 ; Gray, Hand-list of B. L p. 95 (1869). 



