LAZULENA. 
culmen ridge dark, the rest paler, yellowish-hom colour. The legs are 
strong, coarsely scutellate in front of the tarsus, reticulate behind with 
sides unsealed. The wing is long and rounded, the first primary shorter 
than the ninth and secondaries, the second less than the sixth, the third, 
fourth and fifth subequal and longest. The genus Actenoides should never 
have been submerged in Halcyon as the characters are very strong and 
peculiar. 
Dacelo lindsayi Vigors was separated by Cabanis and Heine with 
the generic name AstacophiluSy but here I cannot see any need for 
distinction. The coloration is of the same style, the differences seen 
being only specific as can be easily gauged from the allied species 
Actenoides moseleyi Steere. There is no difference in structure, the bill 
being similar, the wing-formula corresponding, and the tail equally as 
long. From the view-point of a genus-splitter, superficially the three seem 
strictly congeneric and can all be classed in Actenoides. 
The fourth species, Dacelo concreta Temminck, shows the same style of 
coloration, the female being quite similar to the female of hombroniy but the 
male has preserved the green head while losing the wing-coverts and 
scapular spotting. The wing-formula is similar, but the tail is very short. 
This pecuharity obtained generic distinction for the species by Cabanis and 
Heine, who named it CaridagruSy and this name should be used. It shows 
that colour can be practically retained during the shortening of the tail to 
a very appreciable extent. 
A species recently described by Rothschild, Halcyon hougainvilleiy may 
be a further evolution from the Actenoides stock, in which the head has 
become buffy and the wing-covert spotting totally lost. By placing it in 
Halcyon all clues to its relationships are hidden, and its correct systematic 
position must remain unknown until it is studied by a careful systematist. 
I would here comment that the Monachalcyon series admitted as a 
distinct genus by Sharpe, show three distinct generic types. The bird I 
have called Dacelalcyon confusus has the first primary short, the second less 
than the sixth, the third, fourth and fifth longest and subequal, all the 
primaries narrow. The coloration is peculiar, and so suggestive of immaturity 
in its barring above and below that it was at first regarded as the juvenild of 
the next species, monachuSy which is a larger bird with a long keeled 
compressed upper mandible, wing rounded with broad primaries, the first 
very short, much less than the secondaries, the second less than the ninth, 
, the third about equal to the seventh, the fourth, filth and sixth subequal 
and longest. The feet are strong. The coloration is quite unlike that of 
the preceding. 
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