﻿made thoroughly acquainted with the young of the latter species, and can affirm that it is 

 quite different. I had the pleasure of exhibiting to Dr. Finsch on his recent visit to this 

 country, the fine series of C. cristata in my collection, and he quite agreed with me in my 

 conclusion as to the bird figured by Riippell {I.e.) being only the young. All the species of 

 Corythornis and some of Isjridina (all, I believe, except / madagascariensis), when immature, 

 have the body varied with cobalt bars, which gradually disappear as the bird becomes adult. 

 To illustrate this as well as I could, I have had three stages of plumage figured in the plate 

 accompanying this description. The centre bird is fully adult ; that on the left hand 

 represents the youngest specimen in my collection, and which could not long have left the 

 nest, while on the right is given a figure of a young bird, corresponding as nearly as 

 possible to the age of Riippell's A. cyanostigma. 



The present species is spread over the whole of the ^Ethiopian region, and is nowhere 

 very rare. Dr. Finsch, however, thinks that the bird from the island of St. Thomas, stated 

 to be this species by Professor Barboza du Bocage, is more likely to be C. cosruleocepkala 

 and I agree with the learned doctor in this supposition. Nevertheless, Mr. Keulemans 

 expresses his belief from personal observation, that the true C. cristata is occasionally 

 found there, and he also informs me that, according to the natives, a bird with a very long 

 crest was sometimes met with in Prince's Island, so that it may be an occasional visitor 

 there also. That these little Kingfishers do sometimes take long flights, Mr. Keulemans is 

 certain, for in some of his excursions to the different islands, he has seen them out at sea, 

 skimming along the water, at least five miles from the nearest point of land. 



Mr. Layard (I.e.) observes This beautiful little Kingfisher is abundant throughout 

 the colony, wherever a stream or marsh exists which can supply it with its necessary food. 

 It breeds in banks, and lays four or five glistening white eggs, so transparent that the yellow 

 yolk shines plainly through the shell. I have not myself seen the nest, but have been 

 assured by many who have, that it consists of nothing but the bones of the delicate little 

 fish upon which the bird habitually feeds." In the immediate neighbourhood of Cape 

 Town, however, it seems to be not very common, for my friend Mr. Layard exerted himself 

 vigorously to procure me some specimens, but without success, till at last he got quite by 

 chance two at once, both young birds, which killed themselves by flying against a building 

 in Cape Town. 



Mr. Ayres' notes on the present species in Natal are as follows : — 



" Eye black ; legs and bill brilliant red ; frequents both the coast and interior streams, 

 and feeds on fresh water shrimps and small fish, but principally the former ; also on beetles 

 and insects ; darts from a bough on its prey. Builds in holes in the banks, merely forming 

 a small round chamber at the end of the hole." 



Mr. Ayres has lately sent some eggs to the Rev. H. B. Tristram, and I am indebted to 

 Mr. Gurney for the following note which was received by him from the same indefa- 

 tigable collector. He observes : — 



"It bores a hole some two feet deep in the bank of a river or streamlet, forming a 

 small round chamber at the end, in which four pretty white eggs are laid." 



The following details have been kindly supplied me by Mr. J. J. Monteiro : — 



"This beautiful little species is not uncommon all over Angola, particularly on the 

 smaller rivers and lakes. It is a lovely object, as it flies actively about from twig to twig 

 low over the water, and it has a pretty way when standing still of raising and depressing 

 its beautiful little fan-like crest." 



Dr. Kirk in his paper on the "Birds of the Zambesi Region" informs us that it is 

 "universal on all the waters, sitting on the reeds or bushes which overhang them, and 

 darting on its prey. A larger species of Alcedo was observed among the rapids of the Shire, 

 but not anywhere else." I think this last species must have been Alcedo semitorquata, which 

 is in Mr. Dawson Rowley's collection from the Zambesi. 



In Abyssinia, according to von Heuglin, the present species is "common and resident 

 in Abyssinia, up to 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, but is rarer in the Bogos 

 Country." 



