HALCYON QUADRICOLOR. 
Four-coloured King-fisher. 
Cyanalcyon quadricolor, Oustalet, Le Naturaliste, 1880 , p. 323 . 
This beautifnl species was discovered by Mr. Bruijn’s hunters on the west coast of New Guinea, and 
appears to be a very distinct bird. Count Salvadori has, indeed, suggested to me that it may be the young 
of Halcyon nigrocyanea ; but this I do not think likely to be the case. Mr. Sharpe examined the type 
specimen in the Paris Museum, and assures me that the bird is adult, and quite distinct from the last-named 
species. Both Professor Schlegel, in his Revue of the Kingfishers in the Leyden Museum, and Count 
Salvadori, in his ‘ Ornitologia della Papuasia,’ record specimens of II. nigrocyanea , which they consider to 
be immature, as being rufous or rufous-brown underneath ; hut I can scarcely think that there can be much 
similarity between these young birds and the specimen figured in my Plate. 
Dr. Oustalet describes the present bird as follows : — 
“ Some months ago I had occasion to draw attention to the presence of a new species of Talegallus 
( Taleg alius or rather /Epypodius bruijnii ) among a collection of birds killed by Mr. Bruijn’s hunters on 
the west coast of New Guinea and in the neighbouring islands. In this same collection, which was 
acquired by the Paris Museum, was a beautiful Kingfisher of moderate size belonging to the small group 
which is known by the name of Cyanalcyon , and much recalling by its proportions, and by the coloration 
of the upper part of the body, of its beak, its feet, throat, and breast, the species coming from the north- 
west coast of New Guinea, which was described by Mr. Wallace in 1862 under the name of Halcyon 
nigrocyanea (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 165, pi. xix.). The individual before me has, like the bird figured 
by Mr. Wallace, the hill black, with a little white in the middle of the lower mandible near its base ; the 
feet black ; the upper part of the head dark blue, passing into ultramarine on the nape and towards the 
eyebrows, and contrasting strongly with the black colour which occupies the middle of the hack and the 
two large black spots which cover the cheeks, the feathers below the eye, and the sides of the throat. The 
wings are of a dark blue, with the scapular feathers of a bright blue; the under wing-coverts black, crossed 
by a white hand; the tail is blue above, black below; the upper tail-coverts of a clear and intense cohalt- 
blue ; the throat pure white, bordered below by a broad blue hand. But the abdominal region presents 
an entirely different coloration : in fact, in the female which was figured in the ‘ Proceedings,’ the belly is 
of a pure white, with black flanks ; here, on the contrary, the belly is of a very pronounced cinnamon- 
rufous, with some black and blue feathers on the sides, and this rufous colour is separated from the blue 
band by a somewhat narrow hut well-defined line of white. We may not attribute this difference in colour 
to a difference in sex, because, according to Mr. Bruiju’s indications, in which one can place confidence, the 
individual acquired by the Museum is a female like Mr. Wallace’s type. We know, moreover, as a natural 
fact that the male of Halcyon nigrocyanea has the belly azure-blue. In short, although I find in Schlegel’s 
‘Catalogue des Martins Pecheurs du Musee des Pays-Bas ’ (Revision, 1874, p. 31) this note — ‘ A young 
male killed on the 7th May 1870, at Andai, by Von Rosenberg, is remarkable for having the blue of 
the under surface replaced by rufous brown,’ I certainly cannot consider the individual before me as 
being young. It has, in fact, the dress of a perfectly adult bird, with the colours pure and brilliant, and 
does not show any sign of spots, or of the grey or rufous bars which are the sign of immaturity. I 
propose, therefore, to make it the type of a new species, to he called Cyanalcyon quadricolor , to draw 
attention to the four colours (blue, white, rufous, and black) which are spread over its plumage.” 
During a recent visit to Paris, Mr. J. G. Keulemans painted me a picture of the type specimen in the 
Paris Museum, which has been reproduced by Mr. Hart in the accompanying Plate. The principal figure 
is life-size. 
[R. B. S.] 
