THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
and tail blue, somewhat darker on the last. Eyes black, feet yeUow, bill yeUow, 
tip brown. Total length 180 mm.; culmen 35, wing 75-6, tail 57, tarsus 14. 
Figured. Collected at Cape York, North Queensland, on 8th of August, 1913. 
Adult female. Head, hind-neck, mantle and sides of the face cinnamon rufous ; the space 
in front, above, and below the eye black ; a large coronal patch black, as are also 
the tips of the feathers on the fore-part of the head ; a large ovate black spot on 
the sides of the nape, and a broad band across the upper back, which extends on to 
the marginal lesser upper wing-coverts, also black ; median and greater upper 
wing-coverts and outer aspect of flight-quills bluish-green, becoming oil-green on 
the scapulars ; inner-webs of flight-quills dark brown, with buff edgings ; lower 
back, upper tail-coverts and tail blue, some of the tail-feathers margined vath 
brown ; throat white ; breast, abdomen, sides of body, and under tail-coverts 
pale cinnamon-rufous, somewhat deeper in colour on the breast ; axillaries, under 
wing-coverts and inner edges of quiUs below pale cinnamon-buff, remainder of the 
quills below and lower aspect of tail pale brown ; eyes dark brown ; feet orange- 
yellow ; biU orange-yellow, tip blackish. Wing 78 mm. Figured. Collected at 
Cape York, North Queensland, on the 8th of August, 1898. 
Nest. A hole in a termite’s nest, placed in a tree. 
^ggs. Clutch, three or four. White and roundish, 25-27 mm. by 22-23. 
Breeding-season. November and December or January. 
When Macgillivray (the elder) collected at Cape York, in 1849, he came 
across this peculiar Kingfisher, and Gould contributed an account of his results, 
interspersed with extracts from Macgillivray’ s letters, to the British Association 
Meeting of 1850. Gould’s account was printed by Jar dine in his Contributions 
to Ornithology, and from there I extract the following. Macgillivray’ s letter, 
dated Sydney, February 29, 1850 (note the date !), included : “ I have now 
to beg that you will examine a case of specimens sent home to Professor Forbes, 
in the ‘ St. George,’ as it contains no less than eight or nine species of birds new 
to the Australian Fauna, all from Cape York, and the sooner the novelties 
are described the better. You shall have copies of my notes regarding their 
habits, made expressly for the supplement to your work. The new birds 
are : Microglossits, Carpophagay like C. magnijicaf Ptilorhis 7 nagnificus, Aplonis 
metallicus, Hydrochelidon (?), Tanysipteray Bymay Chalyhceus cornutus and 
DrymodesP Gould’s comments at this place read : “ Of the above, I consider 
the Tanysipteray Symay Drymodes and Carpophaga to be new to science, 
while the remainder have been described as pertaining to the Fauna of New 
Guinea, and I have accordingly characterised some of these at the meeting 
of the Zoological Society, held on the 23rd of July.” Then was appended 
the descriptions of . . . Halcyon (Syma) fiavirostris. “ Smaller, but nearly 
allied to the Syma torotoro of M. Lesson. Vide Proc. of Zool. Soc., May 14th, 
1850.” The description appears on p. 200, which was not published until 
February, 1852, and thus Jardine’s notes had priority of pubhcation, and 
the names must be quoted from that place. 
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108 
B 
