Birds of Celebes: Alcedinidae. 
271 
though everywhere else the bill of Eudynamis is whitish. In Celebes, too, 
the Lories, Trichoglossus ornatus and Psitteuteles meyeri, and in Snla Psitteuteles 
flo,voviridis, have lost the band of bright colour across the base of the wing 
below, so that the whole of underside of the quills is uniform dusky shining 
smoke-grey. 
The nearest ally of P. melanorhyncha after P. dichrorhyncha^ appears to us 
to be P. gigantea Wald. — by no means a gigantic member of its genus — 
of the southern Philippines, a form regarded by Sharpe as a “subspecies” of 
P. leucocephala of Borneo. P. melanorhyncha may perhaps be regarded as a 
somewhat recent immigrant to the Celebes Province — not as one of the an- 
cient types of the country; because 1. its modifications are slight as compared 
with those of the Bee-eater, Meropogon, for instance, with its nearest ally, Nyc- 
tiornis of India to Borneo, or of the Hornbill, Rhabdotorrhinus^ with Penelopides 
of the Philippines; 2. members of the genus are known to be birds of good 
flying powers; 3. a form of Pelargopsis^ P. floresiana^ treated by Sharpe as 
only subspecifically distinct from other forms ranging from India to Java and 
Borneo, makes nothing of Wallace’s line between Bali and Lombock, being 
found in Flores'); 4. the circumstance that P. melanorhyncha throws back, when 
young, to the other members of the genus in having a blue back seems to be- 
token that the adult plumage is not very ancient. 
Touching the last point, a few general remarks on the plumage of the 
Kingfishers will be found further on under Ceycopsis fallax. On the habits of 
this species Meyer (6) notes briefly that it is “on riversides rather rare; al- 
ways in pairs together. On the 26*^ of February I shot on the river Tamum- 
pat, near Manado, a female; and the male flew for hours up and down the 
river, crying for its mate; every half hour it passed my resting-place. It has 
a very quick arrow-like flight, feeds on large and small fishes, and always lays 
two eggs”. 
P 84. PELAKGOPSIS DICHRORHYNCHA M.&Wg. 
Red-and-black-billed Kingfisher. 
Plate IX. 
Pelargopsis dichrorhyncha (1) M. & Wg. , Abli. Mas. Dresden 1896, Kr. 2, p. 12; (2) 
Hartert, Kov. Zool. 1897, 163. 
“Bukaka mawuti”, Banggai, Nat. Coll. 
Diagnosis. Similar to P. melancrrhyncha^ but witli more or less of the ciilmen and base of 
the maxilla and most of the under mandible red, the rest black; size somewhat larger. 
Measurements. Wing 151 — 161 mm; tail c. 100; bill from nostril 67 — 73; tarsus c. 17. 
Distribution. Peling and Banggai Islands (Nat. Coll.). 
The Stork-billed Kingfisher of Celebes has been recorded from Snla by 
AVallace (P. Z. S. 1862, 335, 338), Schlegel (Mus. P.-B. Rev. Alced. 1874, 8) 
1) Dr. Sharpe is of opinion that this species crossed the strait by flight (Monogr. p. XLI), 
