﻿green ; quills dark brown, the inner web broadly white at the base, the outer web washed 

 with dull green and narrowly edged with white towards the tip; lower portion of the back, 

 rump and upper tail- coverts bright cobalt ; tail dull green above, greyish brown beneath ; 

 under surface of the body white, inclining to buff on the flanks and abdomen ; upper part 

 of the breast and sides of the neck transversely crossed with narrow margins of brown, and 

 each feather marked down the centre with a dark shaft-stripe ; flanks longitudinally streaked 

 with dark brown ; bill and feet dull coral-red. 



Young. Similar to the adult, but has the breast distinctly marked with transverse 



edgings to the feathers. 



Hab. Senegal (nuts. Brem.), Bissao (Verreaux), Sierra Leone (Jardine), Fantee 

 (Sharpe), Abomey (Fraser\ Angola; Ambriz and River Quanza (Monteiro), Galungo (Sala), 

 Capangombe, Quillengues, Pungo-Andongo, Ambaca, Rio Chimba (Anchieta), Damara 

 Land, Elephant Vley and Hykomkap (Andersson), Kurrichaine (Verreaux), Natal (Verreaux), 

 River Limpopo (Ayres), Zambesi (Kirk), Zanzibar (Kirk), Suateli Coast ( Van der Decken), 

 Interior of Eastern Africa (Sj)eke), Abyssinia {Stanley, Riippell), Bogos Country, Senaar, 

 Kordofan, Taka, White Nile (Heuglhi), Djur, Gazelle River (Antinori). 



I have adopted the amendment in the name of the present species as proposed by Drs. 

 Finsch and PJartlaub, as in its original form the appellation was ungrarnmatical; and as the 

 authors do not wish to refuse Lord Stanley the merit of the first introduction of the species, 

 I see no reason why their name should not be generally allowed by Ornithologists. 



Between the young and old birds of the Striped Kingfisher considerable differences 

 are exhibited, some specimens having a great deal of white on the wing- coverts, while the 

 cross-barrings on the breast are very conspicuous in the young bird. Some specimens 

 have the breast rhore suffused with buff than others. 



All the examples of the present species from South Africa are much larger than those 

 from West Africa and Abyssinia. Strickland separated them under the name of Halcyon 

 damarensis on receipt of some specimens from Damara Land collected by Andersson (I.e.). 

 It is, however, impossible to separate them specifically, as, taking the Abyssinian bird as 

 the type of the species, a regular series of gradations is reached according as specimens 

 from the different parts of Western Africa are examined, those from Angola being inter- 

 mediate in size and nearly attaining the large form of H. damarensis. I therefore regard 

 these different races in a sub-specific light only, as in the case of the species of Corytlwrnis. 



Dr. von Heuglin, whose interesting notes on the Birds of North Eastern Africa we 

 have often had occasion to refer to in the course of the present work, gives the following 

 observation respecting the habits of the present bird: — 



" We found this little Kingfisher resident, generally in pairs, along the Abyssinian 

 coast-region, all through Abyssinia excepting on the very high mountain regions, in Takah, 

 Galobat and Senaar. It inhabits without exception the steppes and wood-region, and 

 numerous as it is in many localities I never found it near water. It seems to prefer open 

 places in dry hilly countries, and is often observed in the neighbourhood of villages and 

 enclosures, and even on huts. Its food consists entirely of coleoptera, orthoptera, 

 lepidoptera and flies. Like the Flycatchers, this Kingfisher has places of favourite resort 

 in its hunting-ground, dry branches of low bushes or hedges and such like places, where 

 it is always to be found and from whence it captures insects on the wing. From this 

 point it seldom goes on to the ground, and never hops on the latter. The breeding-season 

 appears to he in the months of August and September. One can then often hear the flute- 

 like whistle of the male, which sounds like a deep-drawn dschili-dschui-dschui and is 

 generally preceded by a churring note. In other respects this bird is quiet, solitary but 

 not shy, and quits his hiding-place with reluctance. According to Riippell it nests in 



