208 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



Male scarcely adult? is the bird deiscribed and figured by Lesson as 

 Alcedo sacra, Gm. 



Similar to the immediately preceding (young male?), but with the 

 frontal, superciliary and occipital band pure white, or so very slightly 

 tinged as to be almost imperceptible ; under parts of the body white. 

 Vertex and back with the green predominating, and in some speci- 

 mens, such is the case on the wings and tail; rump blue, deeply tinged 

 with green, and with a few whitish feathers. Tibia with brown and 

 white plumage; bill as in preceding. In some specimens, the white 

 color predominates on the head. 



Specimens from Borabora, in the Society Islands. 



Young, is Alcedo tuta, Gmelin (PI. XV, fig. 3). 



Orig. Desc. — " A. macronra, supra oUvacea, suhtus alba, superciliis alhis, 

 torque ex virescente nigro. Rostrum nigrum, mandihula iiiferiore alha, 

 pedes nigri. Habitat in insula Tahiti, incol is sacra, 82 pollices longa^ 



Stripe from the nostril over the eye to the occiput white, tinged 

 with buff, and many feathers edged and tipped with greenish; band 

 from behind the eye to the occiput, brownish-black; collar on the 

 neck behind, pale buff, every feather tipped with brownish-black. Head 

 above brownish-green, which is also the color of the back, darker and 

 inclining to brownish-black near the neck ; wings and tail deep prus- 

 sian-green ; wing-coverts and feathers of the rump and upper tail- 

 coverts, tipped and edged with yellowish-white. 



Breast, with an obscure transverse broad band of brownish-black, 

 formed by the feathers having narrow tips of that color ; throat and 

 other inferior parts of the body, white. Tibia brown and white ; bill 

 as in the preceding. 



Specimens described are from Borabora, one of the Society Islands. 



This species, in this stage of plumage, resembles Todiraniplius divi- 

 nus. Lesson. It is, however, much larger, exceeding that species 

 upwards of an iuch in its total leugth, and is of different colors. T. 

 divinus has not the superciliary stripe which is very distinct in this 

 species, in all of the plumages above described. 



This bird inhabits, apparently, the Samoan, Society, and Feejee 

 Groups of Islands in the Pacific Ocean. 



