SACRED KINGFISHER. 
Notwithstanding the above, it would appear that Vigors and Horsfield did 
not understand the variation of this species, as they also included Halcyon collaris 
as of Latham, synonymising with this the Sacred Kingfisher figured in Phillips’ 
Voyage to Botany Bay^ and writing : “ ‘This bird,’ says Mr. Caley, ‘begins to get 
noisy in the spring, and may be seen frequently. A pair of them had a nest 
annually, to the best of my recollection, in a large dried tree in my garden. 
After the breeding-season they departed : but whether to the woods or 
to a greater distance, I never discovered. From the circumstance of their 
appearing regularly in my garden and frequenting the above mentioned 
dried tree, I considered them migratory.’ ” 
Of course, these notes refer to the species they afterwards described 
as new under the name Halcyon sanctus. 
Gould’s account is good and full, and is here reproduced as it was 
written before civilisation had acted upon the natural habits of the bird. 
He wrote : “ The Sacred Kingfisher is very generally dispersed over the 
Australian continent. I have specimens from nearly every locality ; those 
from Port Essington on the north are precisely identical with those of 
the south coast ; on the other hand, those inhabiting Western Australia 
are a trifle larger in all their measurements, but otherwise present no 
differences of sufficient importance to warrant their being considered as 
distinct. It does not inhabit Tasmania. It is a summer resident in 
New South Wales and throughout the southern portion of the continent, 
retiring northwards after the breeding-season. It begins to disappear in 
December, and by the end of January few are to be seen ; sohtary 
individuals may, however, be met with even in the depth of winter. 
They return again in spring, commencing in August, and by the middle 
of September are plentifully dispersed over all parts of the country, 
inhabiting alike the most thickly wooded brushes, the mangrove-forests 
which border, in many parts, the armlets of the sea, and the more open 
and thinly timbered plains of the interior, often in the most dry and 
arid situations far distant from water, and it would appear that, as is 
the case with many of the insectivorous birds of Australia, a supply of 
that element is not essential to its existence, since, from the localities 
it is often found breeding in, it must necessarily pass long periods without 
being able to obtain it. The gaiety of its plumage renders it a conspicuous 
object in the bush ; its loud piercing call, also, often betrays its presence, 
particularly during the season of incubation, when the bird becomes 
more and more clamorous as the tree in which its eggs are deposited 
is approached by the intruder. The note most frequently uttered is a 
loud pee-pce, continued at times to a great length, resembling a cry of 
183 
