Birds of Celebes: Alcedinidae. 
263 
with the same colour; a line down middle of hack, rump turquoise-blue, becom- 
ing more cerulean on the upper tail-coverts; tail duller blue; malar stripe 
continued to shoulder, greenish blue washed with brighter blue; ear-coverts cinna- 
mon-rufous, paler on sides of neck; chin and throat white, washed with buff, rest 
of under surface cinnamon-rufous, darkest on the breast (Manado, Celebes, March 
1871 — Nr. 6288). 
Adult female. Similar to the male, but rather duller and greener, and distinguished by having 
the basal half of the loAver mandible red (Sharpe 14). 
Young. Similar to the adults, but much more dingy in colour, and always recognisable by 
the ashy colour which overspreads the fore neck and breast, all the feathers being 
edged with dull ashy (Sharpe 14). 
Measurements. (Nr. 6288) ad. Manado, Celebes, wing 70, tail 31, bill from nostril 32, tarsus 
9 mm. 
Eggs. 5 to 7; roundish oval, pure white (unblown pinkish), very smooth and glossy; 19 — 22 
X16.5 — 18.3 mm (Dresser VIII\ Hume a 15^'^^). 
Nest. Digs a hole in a bank, usually overhanging wmter, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, aiicl 
D /2 to 31/2 feet deep, a nest of ejected fish-bones gradually formed at the end 
(Dresser, etc.). 
Breeding season. In Europe commences in April (Dresser VIII)] in India, January or 
March to June, varying according to locality (Hume a 75**'’'), Calcutta district, July 
and August (Munn 20). 
Distribution. Nearly the whole of Europe as far as about 60° N. ; North Africa (in part only 
in winter); across Northern Asia as far as the Japanese Islands, throughout China, 
the Burmese countries and the Indian Peninsula (Meyer & Helm 16] Sharpe 14)] 
Malay Peninsula to Borneo, Java, the Philippines (Salvad. a 9, B. & W. 20, Everett 
19, a 21)] Talaut Is. — Karkellang (Nat. Coll.); Dreat Sangi (Hoedt, Platen a 12)] 
Siao (Hoedt a 12)] North Celebes — Manado (Meyer a 7), Kema (Griiillemard a 77); 
Halmahera; Ternate; Timor (Salvad. a 9). 
The Common Kingfisher has rufous ear-coverts, thus distinguishing itself^ 
from the closely allied A. moluccana, in which the ear-coverts are blue like the 
cheeks and sides of the head. In Flores, Dr. Shaiqoe (14) finds the Common 
Kingfisher has a little blue before and behind the eye, and separates it as a 
subspecies, Jioresiana. Hartert says the two forms intergrade. 
In uniting in one species, A. ispida, the 395 specimens of this form in the 
British Museum from all parts of Europe, Asia and the East Indies, Dr. Sharpe 
(14) has done a stroke of work for which ornithologists, troubled to know 
under what name to speak of specimens from this or that locality, will be grate- 
ful. There is now perhaps too strong a tendency to regard A. ispida as consist- 
ing of two races, a larger and typical western, and a smaller eastern (A. hen- 
galensis) subspecies; for differences probably exist between specimens from se- 
veral different localities. Thus, Dr. Sharpe separates the Flores bird ( jioresiana) „ 
Mr. Hume that of Sindh (sindiana), Beichenbach that of the Sunda Islands 
(yai\ sondiaca), Seebohm that of Japan, China and South Siberia (hengalensis). 
The Kingfisher is the more puzzling in not being a thorough-going migrant; in 
the West it is known to visit Corsica, Malta and North Africa in winter; in the 
East it is a summer migrant in the northern Japanese Islands, a resident in the 
