THE WHITE-COLLARED KINGFISHER. 
85 
474. HALCYON CHLORIS. 
THE WHITE-COLLARED KINGFISHER. 
Alcedo chloris, Bodd. Tahl PL Enl. p. 49. Alcedo coUaris, Scop. Del. Fl. et Fcmn. 
Insuh. ii. p. 90. Todiramphus collaris, Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 228. Halcyon 
chloris, Sharpe, Mon. Alced. p. 229, pi. 87 ; Hume, S. F. i. p. 451, ii. p. 170 ; 
Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 306 ; ITutne Sr Dav. S. F. vi. p. 78 ; Hume, S. F. vii. 
p. 169, viii. p. 86 ; Kelhmji, Ibis, 1881, p. 381 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 187. Sauropatis 
chloris, Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 103 ; Bl B. Burm. p. 71 ; Wald. Trans. Zool. Soc. 
ix. p. 155. 
Description. — Male and female. Forehead, crown, nape, a band under 
the eye and ear-coverts, upper back and scapulars green tinged with blue ; 
ear- coverts and a narrow band encircling the nape black ; lower back, 
rump, wing-coverts and upper tail-coverts bright blue ; tail deeper blue ; 
quills dark brown, broadly edged with deep blue ; lores black ; a band above 
these extending to the eye white ; the whole lower plumage, under wing- 
coverts and a broad collar round the neck pure white. 
Legs and feet plumbeous in front ; behind and the soles in some bluish, 
in some pinkish grey ; the upper mandible, tip and edge of lower mandible 
greenish black ; rest of lower mandible pinkish white ; irides deep brown. 
{Davison.) 
Length 9-5 inches, tail 2*9, wing 4, tarsus '6, bill from gape 2*2. The 
female is of the same size. 
The White-collared Kingfisher appears to be found generally along the 
sea-coast of British Burmah, penetrating inland for some distance at 
times ; for I once shot a specimen near the town of Pegu, fully sixty miles 
from the sea, but where the river is tidal and the water consequently 
brackish. 
It extends up the coast to the Bengal Sunderbuns, but it has not been 
recorded from any other part of the peninsula of India except the neigh- 
bourhood of Bombay. It has also been procured in the Red Sea, and it 
probably will be found at various points of the intervening coast. It is 
abundant in the Andaman Islands, and ranges down the Malay peninsula 
to Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the further islands as far as New Guinea and 
the Solomon group. It is also recorded from Siam and Cochin China. 
This Kingfisher is a bird of tidal waters, and lives principally on crabs 
and fish left stranded on mud-banks at low water. According to Bernstein, 
the nest is generally a plain hole in the earth protected by a stone or bush, 
and the eggs are laid on a few dry leaves and pieces of moss. Mr. Davison 
found this bird breeding in a deserted ants' nest in a garden in Tenasserim, 
and he states that he noticed this Kingfisher in the town of Mergui seated 
on the house-tops. 
