282 
Birds of Celebes: Alcedinidae. 
same locality killed at the same date; silvery- or pearl-blue is the commonest colour, 
but it may be found as deep as azure. 
We are not prepared to maintain that the bird varies locally in any part of 
the province specially treated of in this work. More material from Talaut is, of 
course, desirable. 
Tliree adults from Borneo of the form conceived by Sliarpe as C. coromanda 
(Lath.) are a little smaller than those of Celebes, having wing 105 — 110 mm; bill 
42.5 — 45. One from Palawan, Q scarcely adult, is large, wing 124 mm; bill 48; 
tarsus 17 (Nr. 12533). 
The Bornean race is distinguishable from that of Celebes by the rather darker 
magenta of the upper surface, and by its slightly smaller size; our immature Palawan 
bii’d has no magenta wash above, the under surface ochraceous buff instead of 
orange-rufous. 
Egg of the species. Wliite, 28 — 29 X 26 — 27 mm (Nehrkorn IMS.). 
Egg and breeding habits in Celebes unknown. 
Distribution. Celebes, Sula, Sangi and Talaut Islands: — Minahassa iPosenb. f 1, Meyer 
e 4, Guillem, d 2, etc.); Lembeh Id. (Nat. Coll.); Gorontalo Distr. (Bos. fl, Meyer 
e 4]\ Togian Islands (Meyer e4); Macassar (Wallace el, i 1, P. & P. Sarasin); 
Tjaraba, S. Celebes (Platen e 7); Pehng (Nat. Coll); Sula Besi and Mangoli 
(Allen a, 1, Bernst. & Hoedt f 1)\ Talissi Id. (Hickson d 5); Siao (v. Duivenb 
f 1, Nat. Col L); Groat Sangi (Hoedt f 1, Platen e 9, Meyer); Karkellang, Talaut 
(Nat. Coll). 
Without sufficient material from other parts of the range of the species 
we are obliged to confine our studies to the subspecies of the Celebesian 
Province. On the variation of the species Dr. Sharpe (il) makes the following 
instructive note: “The ordinary form of H. coromandus from the Himalayas, 
Manchuria and Japan is rather pale. The insular forms are darker and richer 
in colour, especially the one from the Andamans. Sj)ecimens from Borneo are 
rather smaller; but the only race deserving of subspecific seyjaration seems to 
me to be the bird from Celebes, Avhich Mr. Wallace called Halcyon rufa”. 
The beautiful Kingfisher, C. coromanda, appears to be on the whole a sta- 
tionary species, though probably migratory in the most northern parts of its 
range. Seebohm writes (B. Japan. Emp. 173): “it is said to be only a summer 
visitor to Yezzo, but to be a resident in the other islands of the Japanese group”. 
Sharpe [il) records lb specimens from Sikkim dated from March to November, 
but not in the cold season. It appears to be no common bird on the continent 
of Asia; in India it must be extremely scarce, judging from the remarks of 
Jerdon quoted by Sharpe (d 1) and from the circumstance that the volumes 
of “Stray Feathers” contain no mention of its occurrence, except in Sikkim; in 
1874 (II, 494) Mr. Hume was able to compare “some forty Sikkim and Tenas- 
serim birds” with others from the Andamans. Blanford (Faun. Br. Ind. B. Ill 
1895, 135) records it from “the Lower Himalayas up to about 5000 feet, in 
Eastern Nepal, Sikkim and farther East”. Oates says it is one of the rarest 
Kingfishers in British Burmah; Davison found it “by no means a common species 
anywhere” in Tenasserim. From China until the last feAV years no specimen 
