SACRED KINGFISHER. 
The clear blue back is not so marked in the northern birds, while 
they are not smaller, and the under coloration is still deeper buffy red. 
An extreme specimen was named by Ba<nk!er, but I have received similar 
birds showing that this deep coloration is a characteristic of the birds of 
district. 
Sauropaiis sancta confusa (Mathews). North Queensland. 
This form agrees in coloration best with the typical series, but is 
appreciably less in size with a longer bill. 
In this place it must be recorded that the species has a wide extra- 
limital range, being found in New Guinea, as well as the Moluccas, New 
Caledonia, and New Zealand. 
The last mentioned place was credited with a distinct species, its 
validity, however, being discounted generally by workers, as instance, 
Sharpe noted : “ This is a large and richly coloured island race of H. 
sanctus.’^ There is little difference in size, and the extreme ruficollaris 
is as richly coloured. Better series than are generally available are 
necessary to accurately define the extra-Hmital subspecies, but the follow- 
ing items may be here indicated. 
The New Guinea birds have been simply recorded as H. sanctus with- 
out indication of any variation which could be regarded as of subspecific 
value. Thus Ogilvue-Grant, the latest authority on these birds, catalogues 
twelve specimens which he appears to have considered nearly all immature, 
and therefore unworthy of consideration in connection with the recognition 
of subspecies. It is a peculiar item, not pointed out by that writer, that 
the collectors should not have procured any series, as Goodfellow and 
Claude Grant both noted that the bird was plentiful and tame. 
The New Zealand bird has been long differentiated as a distinct 
species, but some workers denied this rank, while it has been accepted 
more recently as a subspecies. 
Iredale and myself pubhshed a “ Reference List of the Birds of 
New Zealand ” in the Ihis for 1913, and there we recognised two sub- 
species in that Dominion, namely, Sauropatis sancta vagans Lesson from 
the North Island, and S. s. forsteri nov. from the South Island, indicating 
the long narrow bill as a subspecific character in the latter case. We 
there tentatively placed Tristram’s H. norfolJcensis from Norfolk Island as 
a synonym of the North Island race, referring here also the birds from 
Lord Howe Island and the Kermadec Group. I hope to deal more 
completely with these later, but may here note that probably Tristram’s 
name will be upheld. His species was differentiated on account of the 
upturning of the bill, which reminds one of the bill of Todiramx>hus 
191 
