THE RUDDY KINGFISHER. 
81 
and then darts away with lightning speedy uttering a low sibilant note. 
Mr. Parker found the eggs in Ceylon in April^ July and August ; and he 
states that_, unlike those of other Kingfishers, they are pointed at the ends. 
The birds under observation were breeding in dense forest far from water. 
The allied C. rufidorsa, from the Malayan peninsula and islands, is still 
more brilliantly coloured^ and wants the blackish-blue patches on the sides 
of the head. 
Genus HALCYON, Swains. 
470. HALCYON COROMANDA. 
THE RUDDY KINGFISHER. 
Alcedo coromanda, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 252. Halcyon coromandelianus (Scop.), 
Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 227. Callialcyon coromanda, Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 101 ; 
David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 76. Halcyon coromanda, Sharpe, Mon. Alced. 
p. 155, pi. 57 ; Hume, S. F. ii. pp. 169, 494 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 70 ; Wardlaw 
Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 456; Hutne 8r Dav. S. F. vi. p. 75; Hume, S. F. 
viii, p. 85. 
Description. — Male and female. The whole upper plumage rich rufous, 
suffused with shining lilac, glossy on all the parts except the forehead, 
crown and lores ; the inner webs of the tail and wdngs duller rufous ; 
lower back and rump glossy bluish white ; lower plumage rich ferruginous, 
paler on the throat and darkest on the breast. 
Bill red, blackish at the base ; iris brown ; legs and claws red. 
Length 10 inches, tail 2*7, wing 4'2, tarsus '6, bill from gape 2*5. The 
female is of about the same size. 
The Ruddy Kingfisher is one of the rarest in British Burmah, being found 
only occasionally in a few places. I shot one specimen near the town of 
Pegu, and I once observed it near Shw^aygheen, and the late Colonel Lloyd 
appears to have sent it to the Marquis of Tweeddale from the neighbourhood 
of Tonghoo ; it may, however, be more common in the maritime portions 
of the Division. Mr. Davison found it throughout Tenasserim, but chiefly 
near the sea, and my men brought me one specimen from Malewoon. 
This species is found in India along the base of the Himalayas, in Nipal 
and Sikhim, and also in Lower Bengal. It occurs in the Andaman 
Islands, the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Philippines, 
Celebes, Formosa and Japan; and Dr. Tiraud gives it from Cochin China. 
VOL. II. 
