Birds of Celebes: Alcedinidae. 
307 
Skeleton, 
Length of cranium . 
. . . 78.0 
Tmri 
Length of tibia 
38.0 
mm 
Breadth of cranium . 
. 25.6 & 27.5 
» 
Length of tarso-metatarsus 
16.2 
» 
Length of humerus . 
. . . 83.6 
» 
Length of sternum .... 
25.5 
» 
Length of ulna . . 
. . . 44.0 
» 
Greatest breadth of sternum . 
21.0 
» 
Length of radius . . 
. . . 40.5 
» 
Height of crista sterni . . . 
7.8 
» 
Length of manus . 
. . . 29.4 
» 
Length of pelvis 
29.0 
» 
Length of femur 22.6 
Egg and breeding habits unknown. 
» 
Greatest breadth of pelvis 
23.0 
» 
Distribution. Sangi Islands — Great Sangi (Hoedt a 3, v. Duivenb. a 3, Meyer 6, 9, 
Bruijn 4, Platen 11^ Nat. Coll. Mns. Dresd.); Siao (Meyer d, 9). 
This species appears to be fairly abundant in Great Sangi, but scarce in 
Siao, where it has only been obtained as yet by Meyer’s hunters. It is a 
handsomer species than its near and only known ally, Cittura cyanotis of 
Celebes, from which it may be easily distinguished by its black frontal band, 
black malar region, light phlox-purple ear-coverts and chest, and larger size. 
Its coloration, as jrointed out in our article on that species, appears to be of a 
more ancestral type. 
Cittura ranks low as a form of Kingfisher, and the bill of the young is of 
interest, partaking as it does more of the Melidora-tj^Q than does that of the 
adult Cittura^ and it lends further confirmation therefore to Dr. Sharpe’s views. 
The bill of the young Cittura is dark in colour, a little hooked at the tip, and 
very flat towards the base, the nostrils being situated at the inner edge of a 
rather flat ledge, with the ridge of the culmen standing up high between them; 
the bill of the adult is red, without a hook, and fairly round at the sides, the 
ridge of the culmen less raised. In his notable “Monograph” Sharpe writes, 
p. XLIV : “Turning ... to Melidora we seek the links which may still be left us on 
the globe whereby to connect forms apparently so different, and at once seize upon 
Cittura as the nearest approach to this extreme form; for here is also seen the 
grooved bill, although the maxillary hook is absent”. The probable significance 
of the little maxillary hook in the young Cittura, and of the dark colour of its 
bill, that of Melidora being black — thus become apparent; but the shape of 
the bill about the nostrils does not seem to point to a form like Melidora, but 
more likely to a lost ancestral form of both. Melidora is confined to New Gui- 
nea, Dacelo to Australia and New Guinea, and the insectivorous Kingfishers in 
general “have their greatest development in the Austro-Malayan subregion, while 
the piscivorous Kingfishers are found all over the globe, except Oceania” 
(Sharpe, p. XLVII). In considering the geographical distribution of the King- 
fishers it may be of importance to observe that the countries which have pre- 
served for us what appear to be the most ancient Kingfishers are tenanted by 
ancient faunal and floral tyjres in general. .Up to the present palaeontology 
has brought no evidence of the existence of the lower forms of true Kingfishers 
in other parts of the globe; as Prof. Newton remarks (Diet. B. 1893, 489), 
39 * 
