LAZULENA. 
and primaries black with a white bar across their bases, concealed by upper 
coverts. Under-surface white with grey mottling more pronoimced on the 
breast. There is a black eye-stripe. The tail is long, rounded with little 
graduation. The bill is particoloured, the upper mandible red, the lower 
black. Sexual difference, as known, slight ; female probably duller. 
Immature with head darker and under-surface more speckled. The wing 
formula reads : first primary about equal to the secondaries and the seventh 
primary ; the third longest, the second equal to the fourth and the fifth little 
shorter. A species known as senegaloides agrees with the preceding as 
regards general coloration, but has the bill longer and broader and all red. 
This last feature is noteworthy, as a series exists in which the same general 
coloration is retained and the bill is still particoloured, but an appreciable 
increase in size has taken place, especially noticeable in the bill. The cliief 
variation in coloration is the more extensive black shoulder-patch and the 
deeper bluish freckling on the under-surface. The wing-formula has, however, 
altered somewhat, the first primary being shorter than the eighth, the second 
longer than the sixth, with the third, fourth, and fifth subequal and longest. 
In the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum four forms are ranged Halcyon 
torquatuSj subsp. forbesiy subsp. malimbicus and species dryas. The relation- 
ships seem all subspecific, with malirnbicus as the species name. We have 
here then at our first examination a series showing little or no colour change, 
yet appreciable alteration in size, accompanied by a difference in wing-formula 
and also in bill and feet proportions. Further, while these have retained the 
particoloured bill there exists a small species with the bill all red. The 
large forms deserve recognition subgenerically, so I propose the new 
subgenus Halcyonopa and name Halcyon dryas Hartlaub as type. This 
genus and subgenus are confined to Africa, and these give no clue to the 
original form and coloration of the group. The next, however, seems to 
indicate this. 
Alcedo chelicuti Stanley is a small Halcyonine bird with a very short (for 
the family) narrow bill, showing little keeling and dull blackish-red coloration, 
lower mandible paler. The head is stripedy an indistinct collar at the back 
of the head, the scapulars are brownish, the primaries brown, the secondaries 
greenish-blue, the upper wing-coverts brownish with pale spots. The back 
is turquoise-blue, the tail greenish-blue. There is a blackish eye-stripe. The 
under-surface is white at the throat, tinged with buff to a greater or less extent 
below, and the breast-feathers with the shaft-stripes black, and edges tipped 
with brown, the longitudinals predominating. 
The immature resemble the adults, but are duUer and more strongly 
marked on the under-surface. The wing-formula is pecuhar : the first 
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