THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
“ Halcyon macleayi {Gyanalcyon macleayi harnardi),'" {Emu, Vol. XVI., p. 219, 
1917) without comment. 
Lazulena macleayii puhla (Mathews). Melville Island, Northern 
Territory. 
Lazulena macleayii, subspp. ? ? New Guinea, etc. 
More than one subspecies will later be determined as extra-limital 
representatives of the Australian species. 
It is now necessar}’^ to discuss A. diophthalmo-rufo-ventro Hombron and 
Jacquinot, Ann. Sci. Nat. (Paris) Series II., Vol. XVI., p. 315, Nov., 1841. 
Here a “ Male adulte ” was described from “ Vavao (archipel de Tonga).” 
No species of Lazulena being known from this group, Sharpe placed the 
name in the synonj^my of the present species, as the balance of characters 
suggested this course. It was compared to lazuli Temminck and diops 
Temminck, and the general upper coloration agrees with these species as with 
macleayi : but it differs from all three in the feature “ ventre roux,” while 
it has the neck azure, a character of the female macleayi but not of the male. 
In the full account of the birds of the Voy. Pole Sud, prepared by Jacquinot 
and Pucheran, this species does not appear, and no one appears to have 
written anything about the type since. At the present time it is impossible 
to make search for it, so that the name must stand over, but cannot yet be 
admitted into the synonymy of the Australian species. It may be recorded 
that Hombron and Jacquinot called at Raffles Bay, Northern Territory, and 
thence to New Guinea through Torres Straits. In the Catalogue of Birds 
Tropical Islands Pacific Ocean, p. 7, 1859, Gray proposed the new name 
Halcyon (Actenoides ?) jacquinoti to replace the unwieldy combination offered 
by Hombron and Jacquinot. It is possible that Hombron and Jacquinot’s 
species may still be recovered as, since Sharpe’s first determination, a fine new 
species H. farquhari Sharpe has been described from New Ireland, which 
has the under-surface save the throat reddish-brown, and which may be 
the nearest ally of the lost species. 
Another name admitted as a synonym in the Catalogue of the Birds in the 
British Museum, Vol. XVII., p. 254, 1891, by Sharpe, is “ Cyanalcyon lazulinus 
(nec T.), Bp. Consp. Vol. Aniso., p. 9, 1854.” At the entrance quoted, 
“ lazulinus Schiff ” appears as a nomen nudum,, and its reference here is not 
definite, as Bonaparte admitted lazuli Temm. and macleayi J. & S. at the 
same time. It is quite a distinct name to lazuli Temm., so that Sharpe’s 
bracket (nec T.) was erroneous as there was no “ lazulinus T.” 
Ogilvie-Grant did not discuss the fact that Berlepsch had previously 
distinguished (Ahhandl. Senckenh. Naturforsch. Gesellsch., Bd. XXXIV., 
1911, p. 75) the Aru Island form as a new “ conspecies,” Halcyon macleayi 
170 
