INSESSORES. 



195 



Mr. Peale observes of this bird : 



" The subjects of the present descriptions were killed at the Island 

 of Tutuila, on the fourteenth of March ; they did not appear to be so 

 numerous on the other islands of the Samoan Group, although it is 

 believed they inhabit all. We found them frequenting the cocoanut 

 and bread-fruit groves, always in the vicinity of the native habitations. 

 They are now regarded by many as a sort of domestic appendage, but 

 are not sacred as some of the genus were at the Society Islands when 

 first discovered. 



" The young birds of all the species of this genus which we have 

 seen, have the upper mandible hooked ; the hook gradually wears 

 away as the bill grows, until finally, by the time they are full grown 

 and the birds have attained the plumage of the second year, there is 

 no vestige of it left." 



In the plate of our Atlas, this bird is represented of the size of life. 

 Fig. 1 is the adult male, figs. 2 and 3 are young birds; the last is in 

 the plumage described by Gnielin as Alcedo tata, and which has been 

 mistaken by authors for T. divinus, Lesson. 



2, ToDiRAMPHUs' viTiENSis {Peak). 



Dacclo vidensis, Peale, Zool. U. S. Exp. Exp. Birds, p. 15G (first, edition, 1848). 

 Atlas, Ornithology, Plate XVI. Adult, and young. 



Supra ultramarina , uropygio ad cohaJtinum vertente, collari et corpore 

 sahtus Jiacis ahdomine saiamtiore. Long, 'poll ices. 



Form. — Short and robust ; bill strong ; wings short, second, third, and 

 fourth quills longest and nearly equal ; tail short, rounded. 



Dimensions. — Total length (of skin), adult, eight and one-fourth 

 inches; wing, three and a half inches; tail, two and three-fourths 

 inches. "Extent of wings, twelve and a half inches" (Peale), 



Colors. — Stripe from the nostril over the eye to the occiput, light 

 reddish-yellow (or sienna-yellow). Head above from the bill to the 

 occiput, glossy ultramarine blue, changing to green in some lights. 



