Birds of Celebes: Alcedinidae. 
291 
Its food is similarly various; Gould speaks of mantes, grasshoppers, 
caterpillars, lizards, and very small snakes; E. P. Earns ay (IV), and Cox & 
Hamilton (11), unlike Gould, have seen it plunge into the vrater also and 
take fish. 
A very near ally of this species is H. vagans of New Zealand, which Dr. 
Sharpe speaks of as “a large and richly coloured island race of H. sanctus'\ 
Another closely related form is H. chloris, the next species on our list, from which, 
as Salvadori remarks, it is easily distinguishable by its much smaller dimensions, 
and by the fulvous colour of the cervical collar, and of the under parts (h5). 
91. HALCYON CHLORIS (Bodd.). 
White-collared Kingfisher. 
This plentiful species is distributed from the coasts of the Eed Sea and 
India south and east as far as the Pelew Islands, the Solomon Islands, the New 
Britain Group , and perhaps even the Fiji Islands. According to Dr. E. B. 
Sharpe’s recent researches (Cat. B. XVII, 1892, 272 — 283), a tendency to be- 
come differentiated into local forms finds expression in many different localities 
within this vast range, yet the differences are such that — locality unknown — 
it is certain that an adult specimen could not be determined as this or that 
form by means of a description alone, to say nothing of younger specimens. 
Moreover, “here and there”, as Dr. Sharpe says, “is to be found a specimen 
which seems to be intermediate between the races ; and as several of the latter 
appear to be migratory, it is quite possible that some of them hybridize with 
the resident birds of the countries which they visit”. Instead, therefore, of 
treating these supposed races as being several distinct species and subspecies, 
as Sharpe has done, we cannot help thinking that the whole should have been 
viewed as one species, H. chloris, which perhaps branches out into numerous 
subspecies. Working ornithologists are well aware that it is much easier to 
make a new species than to “kill” an old one — especially so long as the 
author of it is living — and most inconvenient in this way are species which 
are entitled only to rank as possible subspecies Naturalists either entirely ad- 
mit their validity as species or entirely ignore them, and the result is confusion 
and mutual disrespect for the other’s judgment. Would the former only con- 
sent to attach a trinomial or some other token to indicate that the variation 
in the species comes to a particular head there, this stumbling-block would 
be done away; it would then become understood that he who employs the 
simple binomial speaks broadly of the species as a whole, while he who 
employs some special additional sign refers thereby to some particular section 
of the species. That the best way to do this latter is to employ the tri-, quadri-, 
quinqui-, etc.-nomials suggested by American ornithologists we do not believe; 
when the need for it becomes sufficiently pressing, it is to be hoped that some 
much briefer, simpler method will be found. 
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