SAUROM ARPTIS GAUDICHAUDI. 
Gaudichaud 5 s Kingfisher. 
Dacelo gaudicliaudi, Quoy & Gaim. Voy. de l’Uranie, p. 112, pi. xv. — Gray, Cat. Fissirostres Brit. Mus. p. 52. — 
Id. Gen. B. i. p. 78.— Bonap. Consp. Av. i. p. 154.— Cass. Cat. Halcyonidse Philad. Mus. p. 14.— Sclater, 
Proc. Linn. Soc. ii. p. 155. — Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Alced. p. 20. — Id. Vog. Nederl. Indie, Alced. 
pp. 13, 49, pi. iv. — Gray, Hand-list of Birds, i. p. 89, no. 1063. — Sharpe, Monogr. Alced p. 295, pi. cxvi. 
— Id. Journ. Linn. Soc. xiii. pp. 313, 493. — Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, i. p.389. — D’Albert. 
Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, x. p. 19. — Sharpe, Linn. Soc. Journal, xiv. p. 686. 
Choucalcyon gaudicliaudi. Lesson, Traite d’Orn. p. 248.— Bonap. Consp. Volucr. Anis. p. 9. 
Monachalcyon gaudicliaudi, Reichenbach, Llandb. Alced. p. 37, Taf. ccccxxv. fig. 3156. 
Sauromarptis gaudicliaudi , Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein. Tb. ii. p. 164. — Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, vii. p. 765. 
— Id. & D’Albert. tom. cit. p. 816. — Salvad. op. cit. viii. p. 398. — Id. op. cit. ix. p. 21. — Id. op. cit. x. 
pp. 128, 306. — D’Albert. & Salvad. op. cit xiv. p. 53. 
No greater proof could be given, of the great progress which ornithology has made during the last ten years, 
than a comparison of the localities which this species was known to inhabit in the year 1869 with the list of 
habitats which are enumerated by Count Salvador! in his ‘Prodromus ’ of the Kingfishers of New Guinea and 
the Papuan Islands. Originally discovered in New Guinea and Guebeh by Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard 
during the voyage of the ‘ Uranie,’ the localities of Waigiou, Mysol, and the Aru Islands were added bv 
Mr. Wallace. Mr. Sharpe also includes Ceram, on the authority of specimens in the Leiden Museum ; but 
Count Salvadori omits this island from his list, and it seems doubtful if the species has ever really occurred 
there. Count Salvadori has examined one hundred and twenty specimens collected in the Papuan Islands 
by the recent Italian explorers Beccari and D’Albertis, as well as the Dutch voyagers Bruijn, Bernstein, 
and von Rosenberg; and the following places are given by him as habitats for this fine species : — N.W, New 
Guinea, Dorey, Mansinatn, Andai, Warbusi, Wairoro, Dorei-Hum, Sorong, Kukuladi, Lobo, and the fol- 
lowing islands — Salawati, Batanta, Waigiou, Guebeh, Jobi, Miosnom, Mysol, and the Aru Islands; while 
it has also been found in South-eastern New Guinea. In this part of the great Papuan island D’Albertis 
has found the species on the Fly River and in Hall Bay, the Rev. Mr. Lawes at Hood Bay (60 miles east of 
Port Moresby), Dr. James at Nicura, and Mr. Stone on the Laloke river. 
Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard give the following note on this Kingfisher in their original account of the 
bird : — “ This species, to which we have given the name of our friend and colleague the botanist attached to 
the expedition, inhabits the woods of the Papuan Islands. The aborigines call it Mangrogone and Manki- 
netrous ; the inhabitants of Guebe call it Saida, — these being the names employed by the islanders for all 
Kingfishers. It is not shy, and is easily approached. The individuals that we killed had their beaks still 
covered with the earth in which they had been digging to procure their food.” Mr. Wallace states that he 
found the species not uncommon in swampy jungle, where its curious loud barking was often heard and was 
sometimes mistaken for that of a dog. It feeds on Crustacea, butterflies, Mollusea, and Myriopoda. 
The following descriptions are given by Mr. Sharpe in his ‘ Monograph — 
'•'■Adult male . — Crown of the head, cheeks, ear-coverts, upper part of the back, and scapularies deep black ; 
in very old birds a few of the feathers edged with bright blue ; a patch of feathers along the base of the 
upper mandible, a stripe behind the eye, and a collar round the neck ochre ; a spot on the occiput white • 
wing-coverts black washed with bright cobalt ; quills blackish, the inner web light ochre from the base 
the outer web edged with deep indigo, more especially on the secondaries ; lower back and upper tail- 
coverts bright silvery blue ; tail deep indigo above, black underneath ; throat pure white ; sides of neck and 
under wing-coverts white tinged with light ochre ; rest of under surface of body deep chestnut ; bill light 
yellow, the upper mandible tinged with black ; feet black. Total length 11*8 inches, culmen 1*8, wirm 5.3 
tail 4*0, tarsus 0*85. 
"■Female . — Similar to the male, but having the colours not quite so bright, and the tail reddish.” 
