MELIDORA MACRORHINA. 
Hook-billed King-fisher. 
Dacelo macrorhinus, Less. Voy. Coquille, Zoologie, Atlas, pi. 31 bis, fig. 2 (1826). — Id. Feruss. Bull. Sci. Nat. 
xii. p. 131 (1827). — Id. Voy. Coquille, Zool. i. p. 692 (1828). — Id. Man. d’Orn. ii. p. 94 (1828). — 
Gray, Cat. B. New Guinea, p. 19 (1869). — Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 154. 
Melidora euphrosice, Less. Traite d’Orn. p. 259 (1831). — Id. Compl. GEuvres de Button, Oiseaux, p. 653 (1838). — 
Bp. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 150 (1850). — Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 160 (1865). 
Dacelo macrorhynchus, Less. Traite d’Orn. p. 249 (1831). 
Melidora macrorhyncha, Gray, List Gen. Birds, i. p. 10 (1840). — Id. List Gen. Birds, p. 14 (1841). — Id. Handl. 
B. i. p. 89, no. 1067 (1869). — Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. New S. Wales, iii. p. 252 (1878), iv. p. 97 
(1879). 
Dacelo macrorhynchus, Gray, Genera of Birds, i. p. 78 (1846). 
Melidora macrorhina, Reichenb. Handb. spec. Orn. Alced. p. 41, sp. 99, Taf. 428. figs. 3166-7 (1851). — Sclater, 
Journ. Linn. Soc. ii. p. 156 (1858). — Sharpe, Mon. Alcedinidfe, p. 120 (1871). — Beccari, Ann. Mus. Civ. 
Genova, vii. p. 708 (1875). — Salvad. tom. cit. p. 766, viii. p. 398 (1876) — Cab. & Reichenow, Journ. f. 
Orn. 1876, p. 323. — Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, xi. pp. 128, 303; xiii. p. 319 (1878). — Id. Orn. 
Papuasia, &e. i. p. 500 (1881). 
Melidora euphrosince , Reichenb. loc. cit. ; Rosenb. Nat. Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind. xxv. p. 230 (1863) Id. Journ. f. 
Orn. 1861, p. 117. 
Melidora euphrasies, Bp. Consp. Vol. Anisod. p. 9 (1854). 
Dacelo macrorhynchus, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, p. 189. — Id. Cat. B. New Guinea, p. 54 (1859). — Id. Proc. 
Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 433. 
Dacelo macrorhina, Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Alcedinidat, p. 22 (1863). — Id. Vog. Ned. Ind. Alced. pp. 17, 51, pi. 
4. fig. 1 (1864). — Id. Mus. Pays-Bas, Alced. (Revue), p. 18 (1874). — Giebel, Thes. Orn. ii. p. 7 (1875). 
Melidora goldiei, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. New S. Wales, i. p. 369 (1876). 
Melido'-a collaris, Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 313 (1877). 
It is to Count Salvador! that we owe our knowledge of the plumages through which this extraordinary 
form of Kingfisher passes. Mr. Bowdler Sharpe, in his Monograph of the family, seems to have been 
acquainted with the female bird only ; and at the time that he wrote, very few specimens existed in European 
museums. More recently, however, Mr. Bruijn and the well-known Italian traveller Signor D’Albertis have 
forwarded to the Genoa museum a large series of specimens, while it has also been obtained by other 
naturalists in South-eastern New Guinea. The late Dr. James met with it near Hall Bay; and Mr. Ramsay 
has recorded it from the interior of the country near Port Moresby. We have also seen specimens 
collected near East Cape by Mr. Hunstein, and by Mr. Goldie on the. Astrolabe range. 
The south-eastern specimens were described independently by Mr. Ramsay and Mr. Sharpe as a distinct 
species ; but Count Salvador! compared the type of Melidora collaris with others from North-western New 
Guinea, and feels certain that it is nothing but the ordinary adult male of M. macrorhina. 
The present species was discovered by Lesson during the voyage of the * Coquille,’ near Dorey, where also 
Mr. Wallace and Von Rosenberg met with it. It has likewise been found by the latter collector, and by 
Signor D’Albertis at Andai; while Dr. Beccari met with it at Warbusi, and D’Albertis at Ramoi. It inhabits 
likewise the islands of Salawati, Batanta, Waigiou, and Mysol. Professor Schlegel states that the specimens 
in the Leyden Museum from Waigiou differed in having the spots on the back and wings clearer, and of a 
bright greenish yellow ; but Count Salvadori could not find any points of difference in individuals collected in 
that island by Beccari and Bruijn. We are still without any exact information as to the habits of this 
peculiar Kingfisher, whose hooked bill would seem to be adapted for some special purpose in the capture of 
its prey. 
I here translate the description of the sexes given in Count Salvador’s work, from which also the 
synonymy of the species has been derived. 
Adult male. Head black, feathers margined with blue, a spot on each side of the forehead, extending above 
the eyes, rufous ; cheeks and ear-coverts black, the former separated from the latter by a whitish band 
starting from the angle of the mouth ; round the neck a black collar, succeeded by a white one ; remainder 
of the upper surface dusky brown, with broad ochraceous yellow margins to the feathers, those of the rump 
and upper tail-coverts more yellow 7 ; quills dusky, the secondaries externally margined with rufous, internally 
with broad fulvous edges ; beneath dull white, with very narrow dusky edges to the feathers of the throat 
