ALCYONE. 
41 
ALCYONE PULCHRA, Gould. 
Resplendent Kingfisher. 
Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i , sp. 71, p. 141. 
In a collection of birds recently formed on behalf of the 
Trustees of the Australian Museum, by Messrs. E. J. Cairn and 
Robert Grant, in the neighbourhood of Mount Bellenden-Kor, 
Northern Queensland, are two specimens of Alcyone jmlchra. 
One of them was obtained with great difficulty, on the Barron 
River, about thirty miles inland from the coast, by Mr. Cairn, 
who, having shot the bird, had to swim to procure it. The 
other was captured on the nest by Mr. Grant. It is worthy 
of note that after comparing these birds with a large series of A. 
ptdchra, from Cape York, Port Essington, and Port Darwin, the 
flanks are not tinged so deeply with rich lilac as in the specimens 
from the extreme northern localities ; but are similar to others 
of the same species procured by Mr. Cairn at Derby, North- 
Western Australia in 1886. 
Mr. Grant has kindly supplied me with the following information 
relative to the taking of the nest : — 
“On the 26th December, 1887 at Riverstone, about sixteen 
miles inland from Cairns, in company with an aboriginal called 
“Charlie,” (native name Euryimba), I saw a Kingfisher fly into 
a hole in the bank of a creek , after running forward and placing 
my hat over the entrance, I with my sheath-knife enlarged the 
opening, and putting my hand in caught one of the parents ; while 
engaged in securing it, my attention was drawn away from the 
nest for a moment, when to my surprise another bird Hew out, so 
both of the parent birds were in the hole at the same time. 
Afterwards, upon dissection, the bird I captured proved to be the 
male. The nest, if worthy of the name, was placed near the end of 
the tunnel, which was about sixteen inches in length and inclined 
upwards ; it was composed of a few cast fish bones, and small 
pieces of decayed roots, but in all not sufficient to protect the 
eggs from the sandy soil at the bottom. The nest contained five 
eggs, three of which were unfortunately broken.” 
