274 
Birds of Celebes; Alcedinidae. 
genus Alcyone. Observations on the habits of Ceyoc are scanty; they were still 
scantier at the date of appearance of the ‘Monograph’, and our leading Alce- 
dinist was induced to conclude that Ceyx ditfered more widely from the Alee- 
dininae than now appears to be the case: 'Alcyone is a fish-eater and partakes 
of the characteristics of true Alcedo\ . . . Ceyx., on the other hand, is a forest- 
loving genus, living away from the water, feeding on insects, and hearing affinity 
towards HalcyorC (ib. p. VIII). Notes that have since appeared in “Stray Fea- 
thers” and elsewhere tend to show that, while Ceyx avoids broader waters, it 
is generally to be found by small streams — sometime, indeed, dried up ones 
— in deep forest or jungle. Legge (B. Ceylon, 304) says Ceyx tridactylus sub- 
sists on diminutive fish and small aqueous insects; a writer in Hume’s “Nests 
and Eggs of Indian Birds” (Oates ed. Ill, 14) says; “as far as I have been able 
to ascertain, it is entirely a fish-eater, though it may also devour water-insects, 
small prawns, etc. I have never seen any remains of insects in its stomach”. 
Other observers — De Bocarme, and Wallace — testify to the insectivorous 
and crustacivorous habits of species in Borneo and Java (Sharpe, p. 120) while 
Ceyx cajeli — and, therefore, probably its near ally C. wallacei — was observed 
by Wallace to feed on water-insects and small fish (Sharpe, p. 127). From 
this it appears certain that Ceyx must be set down as a semi-piscatorial bird, 
in habits a link between Alcedo and Halcyon. 
Further, in plumage the genus Ceyx is a link between Alcedo and certain 
Daceloninae. Dr. Sharpe has called attention to the close resemblance borne 
by the female Ceyx cyanipectus [Ceyx philippinensis., Monogr. p, 113) to Alcedo 
moluccana^ and remarks that Lesson erroneously referred Ceyx solitarius to Al- 
cedo meninting. Altogether, the plumage of the blue-backed section of Ceyx 
is distinctly Alcedinine, The red-backed section on the other hand, especially 
Ceyx rufidorsus [= euerythrus Sharpe), recalls — save for the absence of the 
blue rump ■ — the peculiar plumage of the wide-spread Halcyon coromanda 
[Callialcyon. Compare, Sharpe, pi. 41 with pi. 57). Thus Sharpe remarks; 
“the link towards Halcyon seems to be in the lilac-backed section of the genus 
Ceyx with the lilac -backed section of the genus Halcyon., where the tail is 
rather shorter than in most of the other members of the genus” (Mon. p. XLVl . 
In plumage, as in habits, the two sections of the genus Ceyx appear to unite 
the Alcedininae and Daceloninae. 
The question now suggests itself; did Ceyx arise from Halcyon and Alcedo 
from Ceyx, or was the reverse the order of development, or, as might also be 
thought possible, did both Alcedo and Halcyon take their origin from Ceyx, the 
one from the blue-, the other from the lilac-backed section of it? Perhaps 
Dr. Sharpe, following up his conclusions of 1870, and students of the King- 
fishers in the future will be able to read as from a book the past history of 
the family, undoubtedly impressed upon their plumage and structure, but at 
present hidden from ornithological knowledge. One small token we believe 
