﻿ISPIDINA L ECO NTH. 



(LECONTE'S KINGFISHER). 



Ispidina Lecontei, Cass. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1856, p. 158; Hartl. 



Orn. Westafr. p. 35 (1857); Du Chaillu, Eq. Afr. p. 

 472 (1861); Sharpe, Ibis, 1869, p. 283. 



I. rostro simo : abdomine rufo : dorso cyaneo : fronte nigro. 

 Hah. in pro. Gabonensi Africa? occidentalis. 



Male. Front black (without spots), crown and occiput blueish black with small spots 

 of light blue, with a purple tinge, a narrow partially concealed collar of rufous on the neck 

 behind ; wing-coverts black, with small purplish-blue spots ; cpiills blueish-black, edged with 

 rufous on their inner webs ; tail blueish-black ; a small spot in front of the eye, cheeks 

 breast and abdomen yellowish rufous, darker on the breast ; throat white, under wing- 

 coverts rufous ; upper mandible brownish black, point white ; under mandible at the base 

 yellow, then dark brown towards the point but at the tip white ; legs yellow. Total length 

 (of skin) 3f inches, wing l - 8-10ths, tail 9-10ths, bill in front 1, width of bill at nostrils 

 3-10ths inch (Cassiri). 



Hah. Moonda River, Gaboon (Du Chaillu). 



This Kingfisher is so rare that I have never myself seen a specimen, nor do I know of 

 one in Europe at the present moment The original bird is in the Philadelphia Academy, 

 and the description above-given is that recorded by Mr. Cassin of the typical example. The 

 following remarks accompanied his account of the species : — 



" This little bird may readily be distinguished from either of the species of minute 

 Kingfishers of the genera Ispidina and Corythornis previously known, by its much broader 

 and flat bill, which is long and quite as flat as in any species of Todirhamphus, The frontal 

 feathers are clear lustrous black to the base of the upper mandible, and unspotted. It is, 

 moreover, the smallest of all those species." 



I have delayed the publication of the present bird till nearly the last in my work in 

 the hopes that a specimen would arrive from Gaboon and allow of my giving a figure of it 

 from a recent skin. This has unfortunately not occurred, and the species must have been 

 left unfigured had it not been for the kindness of Dr. Turnbull of Philadelphia, who, on 

 learning that I was in want of information respecting the bird, most kindly sent me a 

 coloured lithograph taken from the type- specimen. From this drawing the plate in the 

 present work has been designed by Mr. Keulemans. 



