290 
Birds of Celebes: Alcedinidae. 
Dr. Finsch’s cruise in the South Seas a specimen flew on board in 15® S. by 
1 57® E. “The nearest land 300 sea-miles to the north-west was South-east Id. of 
the Louisiade Group, to the north-east, circa 330 sea-miles, llennell Id. of the 
Solomon Group, due west we lay 690 sea-miles from the coast of Australia 
and east 570 miles from Esperitu Santo in the New Hebrides. This most re- 
markable and certainly very rare case of flying astray on the part of a bird 
fitted apparently with such moderate powers of flight calls for so much the 
more wonder, as we had had very unsettled weather on the preceding days, 
with heavy storm and squalls from north-west to north-east in all directions 
of the compass” (8). 
In view, perhaps, of the migratory habits of the species Count Salvadori 
has accepted the localities Tonga Islands and Pelew Islands without query; we 
question the first, since it rests only upon the evidence of that unreliable 
authority, Verreaux, and, as to the second, Finsch is of opinion that Semper’s 
label recording a specimen from the Pelew Islands may be erroneous, since 
the species was not obtained there by Kubary during his l'^ years’ collecting 
in the islands (5), but, after having made inquiries, we have found out that 
Semper collected birds only on the Pelew Islands and not on the Philippines 
and that there is no reason whatever to doubt that locality. The birds in question 
may have been stragglers to these localities. 
Notwithstanding the amount of collecting done of late years in North Borneo 
by Everett, Whitehead and others, this species has only been obtained in 
the south of the island. We infer that the bird reaches this part of Borneo 
from the chain of islands running from Sumatra to Timor and Timorlaut. In 
West Australia birds apparently differ from those of East Australia, but in what 
way we cannot say, for Gotrld (a A) says the former arc “a trifle larger in 
all their measurements; but otherudse present no differences of sufficient impor- 
tance to warrant their being considered as distinct”; whereas Dr. E. P. Ilamsay 
(9) says they are “slightly smaller and of a clearer blue on the back than our 
N. S. W. specimens, with a narrow, well-defined white collar and nuchal spot. 
Wing 93 mm, bill from nostril 38, total length 1 78”’ From these measure- 
ments it would a])pear that the word “smaller” may be a lapsus calami, “larger” 
being intended. As in the case of Merops ornatus, we suspect — should differ- 
ences be proven — that specimens from Sumatra to Timor and S. Borneo will 
be fo\ind to have more in common with West Australian than with East 
Australian, Papuan, Moluccan and Sangi birds, and that the former migrate 
across the ’I'imor Sea, the latter across Torres Straits; but this opinion we utter 
with all reserve. 
The haunts of this Kingfisher are very varied: “the most thickly wooded 
brushes, the mangrove forests which border, in many parts, the armlets of the 
sea, and the more open and thinly timbered plains of the interior, often in the 
most dry and arid situations far distant from water” (Gould a 4). 
