WHITE-TAILED KINGFISHER. 
a dead mound. During the nesting-season this bird’s trilling call may 
be heard all day long in the scrubs, from which it rarely emerges. The 
clutch of eggs is invariably three.” 
The preceding comprises all that is known of the life -history of this 
form, and its technical history is almost as brief. The genus name 
Urahyon should be employed, as thereby is marked the distinction between 
this species and the more developed forms. This seems to be the least 
epeciahsed, as the colour changes are more pronounced in the immature 
and adult, and further the tail is certainly more like the ancestral one, as 
its shaj)e is comparatively normal, and the long tail-feathers, though they 
twist, do not show such a peculiar spatulate tip. It will be noted that 
it is migratory at Cape York and Cardwell, but whence it comes is not 
yet determined. It may simply cross Torres Straits, as, peculiarly enough, 
the Papuan territory exactly opposite is least known omithologically. 
The bird Macgillivray mentioned from south-east New Guinea was des- 
cribed as a new species by Ramsay as T. salvadoriana, and though it has 
been more recently ranked as a subspecies only, it is fairly well differentiated 
from the Australian form. Moreover, it is a common breeding bird at that 
locality, and it does not seem a reasonable suggestion that our bird should 
migrate in that direction. Odd specimens have recently been procured in 
south-west New Guinea, and Ogilvie-Grant’s conclusions read {Ibis, Jubilee 
Supplement No. 2, p., 219, 1915) : “ Tanysiptera sylvia. This immature male 
seems to agree in all particulars with examples of T. sylvia of a similar 
age from North-east Australia. I have also compared it wdth the type 
specimens collected by Macgillivray at Cape York, and after making 
due allowance for differences of age, it agrees perfectly with these. Dr. 
van Oort records an immature female from Sabang, on the Lorentz River, 
as undoubtedly referable to T. s. salvadoriana Ramsay. This is the form 
found in south-east New Guinea with a Hghter blue crown and back and 
paler buff underparts. T. sylvia was believed to be confined to North-east 
Australia, and its presence on the Sebakw^a River is difficult to explain. 
It is not known to occur in the Aru Islands, where T. hydrocharis Gray is 
found. ... In the British Museum there is an adult from the Owen 
Stanley Mountains, presented by Capt. F. R. Barton, which is intermediaite 
between T. sylvia and T. s. salvadoriana ; it has the crown and wing- 
coverts purphsh almost as in T. sylvia, while the underparts are pale buff 
as in T. s. salvadoriana.'^ 
I have examined the specimen referred to above, and it suggests 
to me a different subspecies. The obvious differences Ogilvie-Grant ascribed 
to immaturity, but no specimen from Australia exactly matches it. I am 
203 
