HALCYON PILEATA. 
(THE BLACK-CAPPED PURPLE KINGFISHER.) 
Alcedo pileata, Bodd. Tabl. PI. Enl. 41 (17S3). 
Halcyon pileata , Gray & Mitchell, Gen. of Birds, i. p. 79 (1844); Sharpe, Mon. Alced. 
p. 169, pi. 62 (1868-70); Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 424; Hume, Str. Feath. 
1875, p. 51; Armstrong, ibid. 1876, p. o06; Sharpe, Ibis, 1876, p. o.j. 
Alcedo atricapilla, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 453 (1788). 
Bacelo pileata, Schl. Mus. P.-B. Alced. p. 27 (1863) ; id. Yog. Ned. Ind. Alced. pp. 22, 54, 
pi. 9 (1864). 
Halcyon atricapillus, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. no. 204, p. 47 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & 
Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 171 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. p. 124 
(1854) ; Gould, B. of Asia, pt. xii. (1860) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 226 (1862) ; Hume, 
Str. Eeath. 1874, p. 168. 
EntomoMa pileata, Salvad. Ucc. di Borneo, p. 102 (1874). 
Martin Pechcur de la Chine, Buff. PI. Enl. 673 (1770) ; The Black-capped Kingfisher ; Black- 
winged Kingfisher. 
Udang, Malay ; Burong udang, Sumatra (Raffles). 
Adult male and female (Burmah). “Length 11-7 to 12-5 inches; wing 4-9 to 5-3, expanse 18‘0 to 18-75 ; tail from 
vent 3-3 to 3-75 ; tarsus 0-6 to 07 ; bill to gape 2-9 to 3-15” {Armstrong). 
Layard's Ceylonese specimen measures 5-4, a male shot by Mr. Oates 5-3, and two examples m my own collection 
4-8 and 5-1 inches (the former is an immature bird). 
Iris reddish brown, dark brown, or olive-brown ; bill deep coral-red ; legs and feet dull red, brownish on the front ot 
tarsus ; claws “ horny brown.” . , 
Head, face, ear-coverts, nape, and wing-coverts coal-black ; back, scapulars, upper surface of tail, primary-coverts, and 
the outer webs of the secondaries and tertials ultramarine-blue, very brilliant on the interscapular region, and 
changing into a lustrous smalt-blue on the upper tail-coverts ; a broad band of white across the hind neck, 
immediately beneath which the blue of the back is shaded with black ; terminal half of primaries and tips and 
inner webs of secondaries dull black, the basal half of the former delicate bluish, or bluish white on the outer 
webs and pure white on the inner. 
Chin, fore neck, centre of chest, and upper breast white; sides of chest and fore neck, flanks, lower breast, abdomen, 
under tail-' and under wing-coverts fine tawny rufous, blending into the white of the fore neck, and often tinging 
the hind-neck collar ; under surface of tail blackish. 
Young. Birds of the year have the black of the upper parts and the blue of the back and rump less pure, and the 
sides of the chest and breast, as also the feathers of the hind-neck collar, marked with crescentic tippings ot 
blackish brown ; but in some examples the latter part is striated with brown instead of barred. These crescentic 
markings appear to remain until the bird is fully aged, as they are present in many specimens which hav e t e upper 
surface in beautiful adult feather. 
Distribution This lovely Kingfisher has been only once recorded from Ceylon. Layard speaks of 
one specimen having been shot in the island of Valenny, near Jaffna. This bird, which must have been a 
straggler driven to the coasts of Ceylon by the northerly winds of December, is now m the Poole collection 
and is in a fair state of preservation. Its occurrence in Ceylon is very interesting, as it is a rare bird in 
India and particularly so in the south. Jerdon shot a specimen at Tellichery, on the Malabar coast, and 
saw others from the same locality ; he speaks of it having been procured as high up the Ganges as Monghyr, 
altliouHi it is rare in Bengal. It affects wooded country near the sea, and consequently is more common m 
