Birds of Celebes; Alcedinidae. 
273 
Its nearest ally is Ceyx cajeli Wallace of Burn, which differs chiefly in 
having the cheeks and ear-coverts black, and the back silvery blue, instead of 
cobalt (Sharpe), and a shorter bill. This form is reported by Schlegel to have 
been observed in Sula, but this rests no doubt upon an error of identification. 
The genus Ceyx, as Dr. Sharpe points out, consists of two divisions, “the 
rufous-backed section and the blue-backed section”, which “have distinct 
ranges, the one being Indo-Malayan, and the other Austro-Malayan” (Monogr. 
p. XLI). Elsewhere (p. XXIX), the author further divides Ceyx into four 
groups : — 
1. The C. tridactyliis-gYou^ with red hills and lilac plumage, corresponding 
to the rufous-backed section; 
2. C. lepidus-Qxovq) with red bills but blue plumage; 
3. C. solitarius with a black bill, to which C. gentianus Tristr. may now be 
added; 
4. C. philippensxs (= C. cyanipectus Lafr.) with a blackish upper and orange 
lower mandible, to which several recently discovered species may be 
added, if C. argentatiis Tweedd. and flumenicolus Steere do not con- 
stitute a fifth group for themselves. 
The present species, Ceyx wallacei belongs to the second, or Ceyx lepi- 
dus-gxoup. 
After a comparatively brief study of the genus Ceyx under the excellent 
guidance of Dr. Sharpe’s gxeat “Monograph of the Alcedinidae” and his more 
recent Catalogue of the Kingfishers, it may seem presumptuous to criticise his 
conclusions; yet it may well be asked why the genus Ceyx is put into one 
subfamily, the Daceloninae, and the genus Alcyone into another, the Alcedininae? 
The differences between the extreme members of these two groups, Bacelo 
or Melidora and Alcedo, are most interesting and important, and in 1892 Dr. 
Sharpe maintains his subdhdsions of 1870; the Alcedininae are stated to be 
distinguished by a “bill long and slender, and perceptibly keeled, habits mainly 
piscivorous”; the Baceloninae have the “bill more or less depressed; culmen 
rounded or flattened, sometimes even gTooved. Habits mainly insectivorous or 
reptilivorous” (Cat. B. XVII, 93). Yet in the earlier work, the close correspond- 
ence of Alcyone cyanipectus with Ceyx philippinensis is commented upon; “Count 
Salvadori, who has jraid much attention to these birds, stipulates for their 
both being placed in the genus Alcyone-, but I would rather keep them in the 
genus Ceyx, because we should then have plumage as an additional generic 
character” (p. VII); later Major Ramsay and Dr. Sharpe decided that Alcyone 
cyanipectus is the male and Ceyx philippinensis the female of the same species 
(Ibis 1884, 332, pi. IX) a view which received full confirmation from Messrs. 
Bourns and Worcester (Ibis 1895, 404), though at one time (Ibis 1895, 112) 
doubted by Mr. Grant, but afterwards also consented to by him (Ibis 1896, 
471). They are now placed by Sharpe in the genus Ceyx, by Grant in the 
Meyer &, Wigleswortli, Birds of Celebes (Oct. 28th, 1897). 35 
