﻿lower mandible down the sides of the neck, pure white, the latter varied with longitudinal 

 black marks ; cheeks and a line of feathers below the last-mentioned line of white and 

 black feathers, black, the former narrowly, and the latter broadly varied with white ; lower part 

 of the throat and chest rich rufous, the sides varied with slaty -grey ; feathers spotted with 

 white ; flanks white banded with slaty-grey ; under wing- and tail-coverts white with an 

 occasional black spot ; centre of the abdomen and vent pure white, bill black ; feet dark 

 olive-brown; irides nearly black. Total .length 14.8 inches, of bill from front 3.5, from 

 gape 4.3, wing 8.0, tail 5.3, tarsus 0.4, middle toe 1.0, hind toe 0.3. 



Adult female. Similar to the male, but instead of the upper part of the chest being 

 rufous, it is replaced by a broad slate-coloured band, each feather being banded with white ; 

 below this is a white band, and the rest of the under-surface of the body with the under 

 wing- and tail-coverts rufous. Total length 16.5 inches, of bill from front 3.5, from gape 

 4.5, wing 8.0, tail 4.75, tarsus 0.4, middle toe 1.0, hind toe 0.3. 



Young female. Similar to the adult female, but has the feathers of the band on the 

 breast darker and edged with white, the whole band tinged with rufous. 



Young male. Similar to the young female, but has the abdomen and under wing- and 

 tail-coverts white. From an examination of several young males I am induced to believe 

 that as the bird advances in age the rufous colouring of the under wing-coverts becomes 

 pure white as in the adult male; then the abdomen loses the rufous colouring, the flanks 

 and under tail-coverts becoming slaty -grey barred and spotted with white, the latter again 

 in very old birds becoming pure white. At the same time the black feathers on the 

 upper part of the breast disappear, being replaced by a rufous band. 



Hah. Abyssinia, East Senaar (Heuglin), "White Nile (Petherick, mus. Wald.), Senegal 

 (mus. Hein.), River Gambia (mus. Brem.), Casamanze ( Verreaux), Bissao ( Verreaux), Ashan- 

 tee (Pel), Fantee (Pel), Congo (mus. Dres., Brit.), Gaboon (Verreaux), St. Thomas (Gujori), 

 River Quanza (Monteird), Damaraland: River Okavango, River Tioughe (Andersson), Cape 

 Colony ( Layard), Knysna (Andersson), Caffraria (Brehm, mus Lugd.), Natal (Ayres), Trans- 

 vaal (Ayres), Zambesi (Kirk). 



Considerable doubt has existed as to whether the Great African Kingfishers inha- 

 biting the /Ethiopian Region constitute one or two species. Professor Reichenbach 

 separated them into two under the names of Megaceryle maxima (Pall.) and Megaceryle gigantea 

 (Swains.), and in this conclusion he is followed, but not without considerable hesitation, by 

 Dr. Hartlaub. It should be noted that the learned doctor assigns 'Congo' as the habitat of 

 C. maxima on the authority of Pallas, whereas the latter distinctly states that his specimens 

 came from the Cape of Good Hope ; the authority for ' Congo' is Professor Reichenbach 

 who had specimens in the Dresden Museum from that locality. The differences between C. 

 maxima and C. gigantea are chiefly those of size, and no character can be less trustworthy 

 in the consideration of Kingfishers. Drs. Hartlaub and Finsch, however, in their new work 

 on East African Ornithology unite the two species, and this conclusion is doubtless 

 the correct one. But we are not the less indebted to Mr. Gurney, who by a careful 

 examination of specimens sent from Natal by Mr. Ayres, in 1859, endeavoured to set the 

 matter right, and his observations are entirely correct. I am able to add, as will be 

 seen above, some additional notes on the changes of plumage, and I have to thank Mr. 

 Gurney for very kindly sending for my inspection the specimens examined by him. 



A brief analysis of the specimens described and figured by the authors to whom 

 reference is made in the present work, may be serviceable to the student. Pallas gave a 

 very good description as far as it went, but he described the male as the female, and vice 

 versa. Buffos figures a young male, while Riippell's description of the female is really that 

 of a young bird. Swainson figures a very old male, but the plate is wretchedly coloured. 

 I do tint attach much importance to the crest being unspotted, as I dare say that in very old 

 Ceryle maxima it is so, though out of the large series of specimens I have examined, I have never 



