DACELO. 
(Vol. XVII., p. 295), under the name Monachakymi cyanocephalus seems 
to be nameless and may be called 
Dacelalcyon coneusus nom. nov. 
The genus name Dacelalcyon may replace Monachalcyon as used in the 
Catalogue of Birds after the elimination of Caridonax. 
In the Catalogue of Birds the first reference is to Dacelo princeps MS. of 
Forsten: this does not concern systematics. Then comes Halcyon monachus 
Gray, Genera of Birds, Vol. I., 1846, which was simply quoted as of Temm., with 
no further explanation, and is purely a nomen nudum. In the Gat. Fissirostral 
Birds B.M., two years later, Gray included (x3. 53) Halcyon monaclia as of 
Temminck, cataloguing a specimen received from the Leyden Museum. Still 
no description was offered, and this seems to have been first supplied by 
Bonaparte in 1850 {Consp. Gen. Av., p. 154), who called it Halcyon monachus, 
citing cyanocephala and princeps Forsten as synonyms. In 1851 Reichenbach 
fully described the species under the name Momichalcyon princeps, again 
recording cyanocephala and also monachus as synonyms. 
Sharpe, apparently realising Reichenbach had confused two species, 
selected cyanocephalus for the second, restrictmg monachus to the other, but 
this course is inadmissible and therefore a new name is necessary for the 
species so misnamed. Miller disagrees with Sharpe’s location of the genus 
between Halcyon and Tanysiptera, and it is probable that the early association 
of the species in the neighbourhood of Dacelo may be nearer^ the truth. 
Key to the Species. 
d Tail barred 
o Tail uniform 
? Wing-coverts greenish : primaries externally greenish 
$ Wing-coverts blue: primaries externally deep blue 
D. gigas. 
D. leachii. 
D. gigas. 
D. leachii. 
\\ 
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