﻿This species is closely allied to the Angola Kingfisher {Halcyon cyanoleuca) but appears 

 never to obtain the bright blue head of the latter bird, and moreover does not have the 

 black stripe through the eye produced backwards so far over the ear-coverts. It is also a 

 somewhat smaller bird, as the following comparative measurements clearly demonstrate : — 





Sex. 



Name. 



Locality. 



. V i I 1 1 i 1 1 r i ty ■ 



Long tot. 



Rostr. 



A1 

 ill. 



1 





//. sencjaJensis 



Cameroons. 



mus. E. 13. S. 



7-5 



i-6 



37 



2 



$ 



)> 



Gaboon. 



Verreaux. 



7-5 



1-6 



375 



3 



$ 



ft 



Angola. 



mus. E. B. S. 



8-0 



1-6 



4-0 



4 





>> 



Senegambia. 



mus. E. B. 8. 



8-0 



1-7 



4-0 



5 



$ 



j> 



Eio Dande. 



Sala. 



8-0 



1-8 



3-8 



6 



s 



.•> 



Benguela. 



Sala. 



8-0 



1-9 



40 



7 





>> 



Wbite Nile. 



Petherick. 



S3 



17 



3-9 



8 



$ 



II. cyanoleuca. 



Ondonga. 



Andersson. 



8 5 



20 



4-7 



9 



$ 



» 





»> 



8-5 



1-9 



4-5 



There seem to me to be considerable differences between specimens of H. senegalensis 

 from various localities, but the impossibility of getting a large series of carefully sexed 

 specimens prevents the possibility of being able to account for them. So far as my experi- 

 ence goes, specimens from Benguela are larger than those from other parts of Western 

 Africa. Young birds seem to be more dingily coloured, and to have the breast dark 

 cinereous and the head dull brownish ashy. As the bird advances in age the head appears 

 to become paler grey, till in very old examples it has a slight blue lustre. This, however, 

 does not allow of its being confounded with H. cyanoleuca, as the iwy old birds of H. 

 senegalensis never have the blue on the head so apparent as in the young of the other species, 

 while the extent of the black stripe through the eye is a good distinguishing characteristic. 



The MM. Verreaux have given an elaborate description of a young male (I.e.) from 

 Gaboon which they found to. be identical with specimens from Senegal, and they state 

 L- iliat this species frequents woods, where it lives principally on insects." 



My friend Mr. Monteiro has recently obtained specimens in Angola at Ambriz, and also 

 on the River Quanza. The stomach of one of the birds contained the remains of a small 

 lizard, that of another large grasshoppers. 



The description, measurements, and the figure in the accompanying plate have been 

 taken from a specimen in my collection from Senegal. 



