DACELO PULCHELLA. 
** the head and a posterior collar. The under-parts are uniform ; the wings above 
*' and the tail are transversely banded." 
This bird fully deserves the epithet given to it in the specific denomination ; 
it exhibits a very beautiful display of colours, which requires little illustration by 
description. In its residence in Java, as far as I have been able to ascertain, it is 
extremely local. I found it once only, in a low range of hills, about twenty miles 
South East of Semarang, known hi the central parts of the Island by the name of 
Hills of Prowoto. Here a single bird was obtained in the forest. 
The Dacelo pulchella has on the forehead and sides of the head a very saturated 
chesnut colour, which is continued in a broad band round the lower part of the 
neck. The crown of the head, the occiput, and the upper part of the neck, are 
covered with an oblong mark, with regularly defined sides of a beautiful azure, 
having a few transverse dots of white and black. The upper part of the wings and 
the back exhibit a beautiful variety of sea-green, black and white, disposed in trans- 
verse bands, which are produced by the distribution of colours in the plumes cover- 
ing these parts. The wing coverts, the scapulars, and the plumes of the back and 
uropygium, are marked alternately with bands of white and black, and have a ter- 
minal band of sea-green. The quill-feathers are entirely black, and the secondary 
feathers have alternately a broad black and a narrow white band. The tail-feathers 
are twelve in number; the shafts of all are intensely black and shining: of the 
eight intermediate leathers the interior barb consists of bands alternately black and 
white ; and the exterior, of bands alternately black and blue. The feather next fol- 
lowing on each side has the interior barb like the others ; but the exterior barb has 
the alternating bands partly blue and partly white ; the exterior feather on each side 
has the barbs on both sides alternately banded black and white. Of the under 
parts the throat is whitish, and the breast and abdomen very diluted ferruginous. 
The wings beneath are whitish in the axilla, and as far as the base of the quill-fea- 
thcrs extends ; the extremity of these is brown. The bill has a saturated orange 
tint, which is paler towards the base ; and the feet and claws agree in colour with 
the abdomen. 
