﻿Adult }[<de. Head crested, black, striped narrowly with white, plainer on the cheeks ; 

 a broad superciliary line extending downwards on to the sides of the neck, white ; the rest 

 of the body black varied with white, the latter colour predominating on the lower part of 

 the back and rump ; quills black, white at the base, the secondaries barred with white, the 

 primaries externally white at the base, forming a large white patch; tail feathers black, 

 spotted and tipped with white ; under surface of the body pure white with two black bands 

 across the breast ; a few black marks on the flanks, and sometimes a few spots on the 

 throat; bill black; feet brown ; eye dark-brown (Jerdon), black (Ayres). 



Adult Female. Similar to the adult male, but has only one band across the breast. 



Youth/. Similar to the adults, but the plumage above almost entirely black, and the 

 breast marked with grey edgings to the feathers, giving a barred appearance, the band 

 across the breast not complete. 



Hab. South Africa, (Layard), Knysna (Andersson), Great Namaqua Land (Andersson), 

 Transvaal (Ayres), Natal (Ayres), Caffraria (Wahlberg), Lake N'gami (Chapman), Zambesi 

 (Kirk), Galungo, Loanda (Sala), Angola (Monteiro), Gaboon Camma and Ogobai Rivers 

 (Du Chaittu), Cameroons (mas. B. B. S.), Bonny River (Jardine), Fernando Po (Eraser), 

 New Calabar (Fraser), Fantee (Sharpe), Gold Coast (Pel, Sintenis), Sierra Leone (Afzel.), 

 Bissao ( Verreaux), River Gambia (mus, R. B. S.), Senegambia (mus, Hein.), Bogos Country 

 (Heuglin), Red Sea district (Heuglin), Abyssinia (Biippell), Senaar (Brehm), Kordofan 

 (Petheriek), Egypt (Shelley, Taylor), Algeria (Loche), Sicily (Malherbe), Greek Islands (von 

 der MiiMe, Lindermayer), Cyclades (Erhard), Asia Minor (mus, J. Gould), Smyrna 

 (Strickland), Sea of Marmora (Demidoff), Palestine (Tristram), Syria (Sperling), Persia 

 (Edwards), Mesopotamia (Jones), all over India, Burmah and Malayana (Jerdon), Siam 

 (Schomburgk), Southern China as far north as Shanghai (Sivinhoe), Hainan (Swinhoe). 



[To Mr. Dresser I am again indebted for allowing me to draw from the MS. of the 

 " Birds of Europe" in the preparation of the following article. Any additional information 

 will be gladly received by us for insertion in the above-mentioned work. R. B S.] 



Considerable discussion has arisen amongst Naturalists as to the positive identity of 

 the female of the Pied Kingfisher — whether the single band across the breast is really the 

 distinguishing character of the latter sex, as some male specimens carefully sexed have been 

 found with only one pectoral band. To me, however, the whole matter admits of an easy 

 solution, if attention is given to the progressive stages of plumage between the young and 

 old birds. I have now a very large series of this species before me, and I believe that the 

 very old male has two bands and the old female only one band across the breast. The young 

 males exactly resemble the old female, but as they get older the second black band is 

 gradually assumed, and it is evident that it is a long time before any appearance of the 

 second band is to be seen ; an additional sign of the very old bird is also to be observed 

 in the black spots on the throat just as the grey edgings to the feathers of the breast are a 

 sign of a young one. 



No difference of any specific value can be found between the Pied Kingfishers of Asia 

 and Africa. Mr. Gould possesses an immense specimen from Smyrna, which, however, 

 scarcely exceeds in length of Aving an Indian example, and is, therefore, probably only a 

 very fine bird of the ordinary species. 



The Pied Kingfisher is said to occur in Spain, but not apparently on any good authority ; 

 Malherbe records it from Sicily, and Loche states that it is only a rare and occasional visitor 

 in Algeria. 



Lindermayer, in his "Viigel Griechenlands," observes: — 



"In my former work I did not include this Kingfisher, and stated respecting it that it 



