﻿British Museum which have the crown white, with the exception of a few green feathers in 

 the middle. 



I have taken great pains to collate the synonymy of this species, and I believe with good 

 effect. I have examined personally the; types of Mr. Gray's H. superciliosa, which is the 

 present bird in various stages of plumage, and to the kindness of my friends Drs. Hartlaub 

 and Finsch I am indebted for the loan of the type of their recently described Halcyon 

 cassini, which is certainly //. sacra. It is, however, to the credit of these eminent 

 Naturalists to state that they are the only ones who have rightly identified the true H. sacra 

 of Gmelin, and consequently their work is the only trustworthy guide to the correct 

 synonymy of this and the allied species. As regards the Halcyon pealei of the same authors, 

 1 believe this also to be only a stage of H. sacra. 



Mr. Brenchley has recently brought home a beautiful series of this Kingfisher from 

 Tongataboo. Attached to one of his specimens now in my collection is the following note : 

 " Male: eyes, dark brown: contents of stomach, Crustacea : Tongatabu, July, 1865." 



The descriptions are principally from specimens brought from Oceania by Mr. Brenchley. 

 Thar of the very old bird, however, is taken from a specimen kindly lent me by Mr. Gould. 

 The figures in the plate represent what I believe to be the very old bird (with the head 

 almost white), the adult (with a white eyebrow), and the young (with a cinnamon coloured 

 eyebrow). 



