﻿by " whee-whee-whee" and "wheet-wheet-wheet"\s usually uttered while the bird is perched on 

 a bare transverse branch or woody rope-like climber, which it uses as a look-out station, and 

 whence it makes short dashes at any passing insect or small lizard, generally returning to 

 the same spot. It. is a shy suspicious bird, and one well calculated to try the patience of 

 the shooter, who may follow it for an hour without getting a shot, unless he has as keen an 

 eye as the native to whom I was indebted for first pointing it out to me. According to the 

 natives, avIio know it by the name of Quataivur, it lays three white eggs in a hole dug by 

 itself, in one of the large ant-hills of red clay which form so remarkable a feature in the 

 neighbourhood, some of them being as much as ten feet in height, with numerous buttresses 

 and pinnacles. I believe that the bird also inhabits New Guinea ; for at Redscar Bay, on 

 the south-east side of that great Island, in long. 146° 15' E., a head strung upon a necklace 

 was procured from the natives." 



With regard to its occurrence in New Guinea, I am informed that there are in the 

 Leiden Museum some specimens sent thence by von Rosenberg. 



My friend Mr. E. P. Ramsay of Dobroyde, has favoured me with the following note: — 



"This is without exception the most beautiful of all our Kingfishers. Its great 

 stronghold is the northern part of Queensland and Cape York, from which latter place I 

 have seen some hundreds of specimens. Every person ornithologically inclined and all 

 curiosity hunters bring skins down to Sydney, but as regards specimens for the cabinet 

 they are worthless, being as unlike birds as skin and feathers can possibly be made ; 

 consequently there are few collections even here which contain decent specimens. Like the 

 rest of its family, this species lays five roundish white eggs in a round chamber near the end 

 of a tunnel, in the side of a bank or in the hills of the white ants." 



" It appears to make annual migrations, arriving in great numbers during a single night. 

 At Cape York they are plentiful from October to January or February, and I have received 

 a single female specimen from Port Denison, the extreme limit of its southern boundary, 

 said to have been shot in the month of October. It is curious, however, that none were 

 seen by my collector at Rockingham Bay during his visit there from November to the end 

 of January. I was greatly disappointed as I expected to get some specimens from that 

 neighbourhood." 



" The female differs from the male in having the outer webs of the two central tail- 

 feathers margined with blue to within a quarter of their length from the tip. The upper 

 tail-coverts are also edged with blue and the middle tail-feathers are much shorter in the 

 female than in the male, at least such is the conclusion I have arrived at from a close 

 examination of many specimens. This fact seems not to have been noticed by Mr. Gould 

 in his remarks on the colour and plumage of this species. When Mr. Gould's figure and 

 description was published, Cape York was the only locality the bird was known to inhabit; 

 but on the authority of Macgillivray's journal of the voyage of the "Julia Percy" and from 

 specimens procured by several of my collectors, I can affirm that its habitat ranges from Port 

 Denison all along the coast north and north-west to Essington." 



These additional details of the life-history of this elegant Kingfisher will doubtless be 

 welcomed by ornithologists, and I am able to confirm Mr. Ramsay's observations as to the 

 differences in the sexes from an examination of .an immense series of specimens lately brought 

 home to this country, collected in the neighbourhood of Somerset, Cape York, by Messrs. 

 Cockerell and Thorpe. The females generally have the tail-feathers much rubbed as if in 

 consequence of the constant friction to which they are subjected in excavating the holes and 

 performing the other duties of incubation. Occasionally the tails of the males are found to 

 be much worn but not so generally as those of the female. 



The figure of the bird in Mr. Diggles' " Ornithology of Australia" appears to me too large 

 and bulky ; but that of the young bird is of great interest. He gives the following particu- 

 lars respecting the species: — 



" This beautiful Kingfisher is only obtained in the peninsular of Cape York. It is a 

 migratory bird, and makes its appearance at the setting in of the N.W. monsoon, in the 

 month of November, and departs in March to its northern habitat, the Island of New 

 Guinea. It is somewhat plentiful near Port Albany, but, from the shyness of its disposition, 



