﻿HALCYON VAGANS. 



(NEW ZEALAND KINGFISHER.) 



Alcedo sacra, var. D . . Lath. Syn. Suppl. p. 114. 



Alcedo sacra, rar. e . , Bonn, et Vieill. Enc. Meth. I, p. 295 (1823). 



Alcedo vagans .... Less. Voy. Coq. I, p. 694 (1826). 



Alcedo chlorocephala, var. y . Less. Traite d'Orn. p. 546 (1831). 



Halcyon vagans . . . Gray, Voy. Ereb. & Terror, p. 3, pi. 1 (1844); id. Gen. of B. I, p. 



79 (1846) ; id. Cat. Fiss. Brit. Mus. p. 57 (1848) ; id. Ibis, 

 1862, p. 216; Layard, Ibis, 1863, p. 242; Hutton, Ibis, 1867, 

 p. 379; Buller, Essay on Orn. of N. Z. p. 7 (1867); Finsch, 

 Journ. f. Orn. 1867, p. 318 ; Buller, Trans. N. Z. Inst. I, p. 

 122 (1869) ; Hutton, I.e. I, p. 160 ; Potts, I.e. II, p. 52 (1870). 



TudirhamjjJius vagans . . . Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. I, p. 157 (1851); Reich. Handb. Alccd. p. 



31, t. ccccxix, fig. 3188-89 (1851); Cass. Cat. Hale. Phil. Mus. 

 p. 12 (1852) , Bonap. Consp. Vol. Anis. p 9 (1854) ; Cass. U. 

 S. Expl. Exp. p. 201 (1848). 



Dacelo sancta (pt.) . . . Schl. Cat, Mus. Pays Bas, Alced. p. 37 (1863). 



Halcyon sanctus . . . Einsch, Journ. f. Orn. 1870, p. 246. 



Alcedo cyanea .... Forst. Descr. Anim. p. 76 (1844). 



Kotare of the natives of New Zealand (Potts). 



H. similis IT. sancta, sed major : coloribus sordidioribus. 

 Hah. in Nova Zeelandia. 



Adult. Head dull green, brighter over the eye; lores buff; ear-coverts and the back 

 of the neck black ; an occipital patch buffy white ; upper part of the back blackish ; 

 scapulars dull olive-green ; least wing-coverts dull green, rest of the wing-coverts brighter 

 green washed with blue ; quills black, externally washed with cobalt ; lower portion of the 

 back brighter green, inclining to cobalt on the upper tail-coverts; tail black, clearly washed 

 with blue above; sides and back of the neck and under-surface of the body buff; bill black ; 

 yellowish at the base ; feet olive brown. Total length 8-4 inches ; of bill from front 19., 

 from gape 2*4; wing 3 85; tail 29; tarsus 0.5. 



Young. Similar to the adult but has the colours everywhere duller, and the hinder 

 neck and breast crossed with narrow brown edgings to the feathers. 



J fah. New Zealand (Haa.st, Buller, Polls). 



