302 
Birds of Celebes: Alcedinidae. 
Measurements. 
Wing 
Tail 
Bill from 
nostril 
Tarsus 
a. (Nr. 3688) ad. [o’] Celebes (type of M. pyrinceps) . . 
114 
88 
— 
18 
b. (Nr. 8186) ad. [q^] Gorontalo 
120 
96 
34 
17 
c. (Nr. 8185) vix ad. [<5*1 Gorontalo 
115 
90 
33 
18 
d. (Nr. 3687) ad. [o’] Manado 
85 
34.5 
— 
e. (Sarasin Coll.) 9 ad. Eurukan, 26. UI. 94 . . . 
117 
85 
31 
18 
Eggs. “The two eggs of this species sent to me by Dr. Platen from Eurukan in the Mina- 
hassa are, like those of all Alcedidae, white, yet without gloss; the shell very delicate. 
They measure 33 X 25.5 mm“ (Nehrkorn MS.). 
Distribution. Celebes, ISTorthern Peninsula: Minahassa (Forsten dl, d II, v. Eosenberg 
d 3, f 1, etc.); Glorontalo Dkstrict (Eiedel in Dresd. Mus.). 
As in the case of M. monachus the two different dresses, which we have 
described as of a sexual character, have been treated by Briiggemann (fl) 
as seasonal dresses. Specimens, the sex of which have been ascertained, are very 
scarce, but through the kindness of Mr. Nehrkorn we have been able to 
describe an adult female with two cinnamon stripes on the sides of the head. 
The specimen figured by Schlegel (d II) has also two stripes on the sides of 
the head and is marked Q juv. The Drs. P. & F. Sarasin, when in Celebes, paid 
much attention to this question, and sent home an adult female ready to breed, 
a quite young female, and a male just out of the nest. They and the two 
above prove that the male has a complete blue cowl, covering the head, face, 
ear-coverts and nape, while the female has a cinnamon superciliary and a similar 
malar stripe, and these sexual differences — as is known to be the case in some 
other Kingfishers — exist from the very first. The example described by Dr. 
Sharpe in the Catalogue of Birds should be an adult female. 
The plumage of this species has a curiously immature appearance which 
led to its being treated of as the young of Monachalcyon monachus^ until its 
distinctness was pointed out by Briiggemann in 1876 (f 1). Chief among its 
differences are the relation of the primaries to one another; in the present 
species the third is nearly as long as the fourth and fifth and longer than the 
sixth, in M. monachus the sixth is equal to, or longer than, the third. M. prin- 
ceps, too, is altogether a much smaller species. 
The plumage of Monachalcyon princeps apjsears to be ancient in character. 
Dr. Sharpe, speaking of it as the young of the foregoing species, remarks 
(Monogr. 1870, p. XVIII, XLV) that it very much resembles the young of 
Tanysiptera (compare Monograph, plate 98, M. monachus — fig. on the left, with 
plate 101, Tanysiptera doris and plate 106, T. hydrocharis) . The adult Tanysiptera 
has of course made a vast departure from this plumage. Again M. princeps 
has much in common with Halcyon lindsayi of Luzon and H. hombroni of Min- 
danao, though, while M. monachus most closely resembles H. hombroni, the present 
species bears most likeness to H. lindsayi 
