LAZULENA. 
Another closely allied series of purple-backed Kingfishers again show 
structural diSerences, while the colour has not essentially changed. They are 
bigger birds with broader, stronger bills, still of the same coloration as those of 
Lazulena, with the tail longer and more graduated. The wing-formula is 
essentially different, the first primary being short and the secondaries being 
long, exceeding it in length : the first primary is less than the ninth, the 
second a little longer than the sixth, the third, fourth and fifth subequal and 
longest, but not greatly exceeding the second. The best known species is 
Halcyon nigrocyanea Wallace, and I name this as type of the new genus 
Dilaztjla. The immature has a black cap, blue circle at nape, black mantle 
and primaries : the wing-coverts dark bluish, the tail deep blue : the back 
is bluish and there is a black streak below the eyes : the throat is white and 
the rest of the under-surface is brown. The female has the head blue, 
generally black above, the wing-coverts purplish-blue and the tail deep 
purple : the back is turquoise : the under-surface is all white with a blue 
band across the chest. In the male the purple-blue extends over the 
secondaries and partly over the scapulars, while the under-surface has the 
throat white, and spot on the breast white, the rest all blue. 
Cya'nalcyon stictolcema Salvador! is closely related, the chief difference 
being the lack of white in the under-surface of the male. Gyanahyon 
quadricolor Oustalet seems to show the above immature plumage as a fixed 
feature, a blue band across the chest being seen above the red-brown. In 
nigrocyanea this blue band appears first while the brown of the abdomen is 
still present. Berlepsch’s record that the female of quadricolor is like the 
female of nigrocyanea is probably wrong : if it were correct a peculiar case of 
reversion would be presented : the sexes should show exactly the opposite : 
that is, the red-bellied birds should be females and the white-bellied ones the 
males, in which case nigrocyanea is the most recent evolution. 
It is probable that another species, Halcyon winchelli Sharpe, though 
differing httle in structure and not a great deal in coloration has had a different 
source, and that the apparent similarities are due to convergence. There is 
not, however, sufficient material and evidence to separate this species generic ally, 
so I class it with the preceding, but propose for it the new subgeneric qame 
Dilazulena as the biU is differently shaped : the red loral spots and red nuchal 
collar are distinctive : the upper-surface is more purplish above and the under- 
surface is huffy, whiter on abdomen, while specimens are known with the 
under-surface white, but whether this be sexual or due to immaturity is not 
yet known. 
The largest series of “ Halcyonine ” birds is the Todiramphus-Cyanalcyon- 
Sauropatis group. Throughout this series the coloration is fairly uniform. 
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