Genus— U R A L C Y 0 N . 
Uralcyon Heine, Joiirn. fiir Ornith., 1859, p. 406 . . Type U. sylvia. 
Small Dacelonine birds with short bills, long wings, short wedge-shaped 
tails of ten feathers, the two middle ones extraordinarily elongated, 
and small legs and feet. 
The bill is short and unicolor (red), the upper mandible with an 
upward tendency, similar to that seen in Sauro'patisy the nostrils rather 
large and open. 
The wing is rounded, the first primary short, equal to the seventh 
primary and longer than the secondaries ; the third and fourth primary 
are subequal and longest, the second and fifth subequal and little shorter. 
The tail of ten feathers has eight short narrow-pointed feathers, 
forming a distinct wedge, the two middle feathers being very much 
elongated, tapering very narrow and twisted so that their extremities 
cross. The longest centre feathers are about three times the length of 
the succeeding pair, which are much exceeded in length by the wing. 
The feet are small, the tarsus obsoletely scutellated. 
These Kingfishers, with ten tail-feathers, the centre two much elongate, 
form a series much more difficult to ‘deal with from the point of view 
of the student of evolution. Anatomical study is absolutely necessary 
to determine whether these evolved from the same ancestor or have been 
independently developed from different sources. They do not appear 
to have been evolution products of known Kingfisher branches, but rather 
to have developed alongside the latter from a common ancestral source. 
Miller classed the genus “ Tanysiptera ” in his subfamily Dacelonince^ 
conclndiiig: Tanysi'ptera is highly remarkable in the form of its tail, but 
in no other respect.” Beddard, however, had written : “ Thus, while they 
{Alcedines as a whole) generally agree with the bulk of their relations in 
having a characteristically tufted oil gland, the genus Tanysiptera (three 
species at any rate) has a nude oil glands The italics are Beddard’s. 
I have not seen any discussion of the skeletal features of species of this 
genus, and when such are provided it will be very necessary to have the 
species examined accurately determined. 
Structurally the Australian birds differ from the group typified 
197 
