194 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



garded as the same by very competent authors, but evidently to us, 

 erroneously. We regard the two species described and figured by M. 

 Lesson, as above referred to, as clearly distinct from each other and 

 well established. The error of authors has been mainly in mistaking 

 the young of T. tuta for T. dlvimis, which it resembles. Professor 

 Reichenbach in " Die Vollstandigste Naturgeschichte," Birds, Plate 

 CCCCXXIII, figs. 3148, 49, 50, 51, has figured the two species here 

 alluded to, under the names Todiramphus sacer and intu. The latter 

 apparently represents T. divirins (figs. 3150, 51), but the specimens 

 figured in this great work, were not in mature plumage. Several 

 species figured by this author and arranged in Todlramplms, do not 

 belong to this genus (for instance. Halcyon luzali and H. diops). This 

 is also the case in Bonaparte's Conspectus Avium, p. 156. 



In an interesting and valuable paper on little-known species of birds 

 described by various authors, the types of which are in the Imperial 

 Museum at Vienna, in " Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie 

 der Wissenschaften," XX, p. 492, by M. Von Pelzeln, of the Imperial 

 Museum, the original specimen of Alcedo venerata, Gmelin, from the 

 Leverian Museum is re-described. It appears to have been acquired 

 by the Austrian Government at the public sale of the Leverian 

 Museum in 1806, and its examination and description by M. Von 

 Pelzeln, is in the highest degree interesting, and a valuable contri- 

 bution to descriptive Ornithology. According to this description, it 

 is evidently the young of the present bird, or in very nearly that 

 stage of plumage which is Alcedo tuta, Gmelin. 



Dr. Pickering gives the following: 



" The Ornithology of these islands" (the Samoan or Navigator), " is 

 much more rich and varied than is generally supposed, especially in 

 the large Island of Savai, and Ave have reason to think that we have 

 by no means exhausted it. It is remarkable that among land birds 

 we did not find a single species common to this group and to the So- 

 ciety Islands. The pigeons are still the prevailing family, and as in 

 the group just mentioned, we notice no bird of the Falcon family. 

 Sea-birds do not seem abundant, probably as at Tahiti, on account of 

 the coast being inhabited. 



" This kingfisher is common in the Islands of Tutuila and Upolu, 

 and is generally seen sitting solitary and silent on a branch, or occa- 

 sionally uttering a harsh note. Tongue very short and broad, and 

 apparently fleshy to its apex." 



