Chapter II: Part 2

Like many other Australian birds, this species has been considered to be identical with another or others described by the older writers. Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield, in their “List of Australian Birds,” published in the fifteenth volume of the Linnean Transactions, state that they “have been led into a more detailed description of this species, in order to point out the differences of its characters from those of our European species _Hir. rustica_, with which it has been generally confounded;” but while they have very clearly pointed out the distinctive characters of the two species, they have, in my opinion, departed from their usual accuracy in considering it to be identical with the bird figured by Sparmann in the “Museum Carlsonianum” under the name of _Hirundo Javanica_, which is there represented with a square tail, and which, if drawn correctly, is not only specifically but generically distinct. I have also compared specimens of the Australian Swallow with the _Hirondelle Orientale_ of M. Temminck’s “Planches Coloriées,” with which species it was likewise considered to be identical by Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield, but from which also I conceive it to be distinct. On the contrary, the Swallow figured in Griffith’s edition of Cuvier’s “Animal Kingdom” is certainly the Australian bird; but as the specific term there given had been previously employed by Sparmann, as mentioned above, the necessity of a new name for the present species has been forced upon me; and that of _neoxena_ has suggested itself as appropriate, from the circumstance of its appearance throughout the whole of the southern portions of Australia being hailed as a welcome indication of the approach of spring, and its arrival there associated with precisely the same ideas as those popularly entertained respecting our own pretty Swallow in Europe. The two species are in fact beautiful representatives of each other, and assimilate not only in their migratory movements, but also most closely in their whole habits, actions and economy. It arrives in Van Diemen’s Land about the middle or end of September, and after rearing at least two broods departs again northwards in March; but it is evident that the migratory movement of the Swallow, and doubtless that of all other birds, is regulated entirely by the temperature and the more or less abundant supply of food necessary for its existence; for I found that in New South Wales, and every country in Australia within the same latitude, it arrived much earlier and departed considerably later than in Van Diemen’s Land; and Mr. Caley, who resided in New South Wales for several years, and whose valuable notes on the birds of that part of the country have been so often quoted, states that “the earliest period of the year that I noticed the appearance of _Swallows_ was on the 12th of July 1803, when I saw two; but I remarked several towards the end of the same month in the following year (1804). The latest period I observed them was on the 30th of May 1806, when a number of them were twittering and flying high in the air. When I missed them at Paramatta, I have sometimes met with them among the north rocks, a romantic spot about two miles to the northward of the former place.” A few stragglers remain in New South Wales during the whole of the winter, but their numbers cannot be for a moment compared with those to be observed in the summer, and which during the colder months have wended their way to a warmer and more congenial climate, where insect life is sufficiently abundant for the support of so great a multitude. I have never been able to trace this bird very far to the north; it certainly does not visit Java, nor I believe New Guinea, neither have I yet seen it from Port Essington or any part of the north coast, although it is probable that its range does extend thus far.

The natural breeding-places of this bird are the deep clefts of rocks and dark caverns, but since the colonization of Australia it has in a remarkable degree imitated its European prototype, by selecting for the site of its nest, the smoky chimneys, the chambers of mills and out-houses, or the corner of a shady verandah; the nest is also similarly constructed, being open at the top, formed of mud or clay, intermingled with grass or straw to bind it firmly together, and lined first with a layer of fine grasses and then with feathers. The shape of the nest depends upon the situation in which it is built, but it generally assumes a rounded form in front. The eggs are usually four in number, of a lengthened form; the ground colour pinky white, with numerous fine spots of purplish brown, the interspaces with specks of light greyish brown, assuming in some instances the form of a zone at the larger end; they are from eight to nine lines long by six lines broad. At Swan River the breeding-season is in September and October.

The food consists of small flies and other insects.

Forehead, chin, throat and chest rust-red; head, back of the neck, back, scapularies, wing-coverts, rump and upper tail-coverts deep steel-blue; wings and tail blackish brown, all but the two centre feathers of the latter with an oblique mark of white on the inner web; under surface very pale brown; under tail-coverts pale brown passing into an irregular crescent-shaped mark near the extremity and tipped with white; irides dark brown; bill and legs black.

The figures are those of a male and female of the natural size.

CHELIDON ARBOREA: _Gould_.

_J. Gould and H. C. Richter, del^t_ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]

COLLOCALIA ARBOREA.
Tree Martin.

_Dun-rumped Swallow_, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. vii. p. 309.

_Hirundo pyrrhonota_, Lath. MSS.—Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol.
xv. p. 190.

_Hirundo nigricans_, Vieill. Ency. Méth., Part II. p. 525?

_Gäb-by-kal̈-lan-goö-rong_, Aborigines of the lowlands of Western
Australia.

_Martin_ of the Colonists.

The specific term of _pyrrhonota_ having been given to a bird of this group by Vieillot, prior to the publication of the List of Australian Birds by Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield in the Linnean Transactions, as quoted above, I have been necessitated to furnish this species with a new appellation, and have selected that of _arborea_ as indicative of its habits; for in every part of Australia that I have visited, it invariably selects the holes of trees for the purpose of nidification.

It is strictly a summer visitant to Van Diemen’s Land and all the southern portions of Australia, arriving in August and retiring northwards as autumn approaches.

The Tree Martin is a familiar species, frequenting the streets of the towns in company with the Swallow. I observed it to be particularly numerous in the streets of Hobart Town, where it arrives early in September; the more southern and colder situation of the island rendering all migratory birds later in their arrival there.

It breeds during the month of October in the holes of trees, making no nest, but laying its eggs on the soft dust generally found in such places: the eggs are from three to five in number, of a pinky white faintly freckled at the larger end with fine spots of light reddish brown; they are eight lines long by six lines broad.

Its food consists of insects of various kinds, particularly a species of small black fly.

Considerable difference exists both in size and in the depth of colouring of specimens killed in New South Wales, Swan River and Van Diemen’s Land; but as there exists no distinctive character of marking, I am induced to regard them as mere local varieties rather than as distinct species. The Van Diemen’s race are larger in all their admeasurements, and have the fulvous tint of the under surface and the band across the forehead much deeper than in those killed in New South Wales; individuals from the latter locality again exceed in size those from Western Australia.

Specimens from Van Diemen’s Land have the forehead crossed by a fulvous band; head, back of the neck, back and scapularies glossy bluish black; wings and tail brown; rump and upper tail-coverts light fulvous; throat, sides of the neck and flanks light fulvous, with a narrow stripe of dark brown in the centre of each feather; centre of the abdomen nearly white; irides, bill and feet blackish brown.

The figures in the opposite Plate, which are of the natural size, were taken from two of the varieties mentioned above; the upper one from a specimen killed in New South Wales, the other two from birds taken in Van Diemen’s Land.

CHELIDON ARIEL: _Gould_.

_J. Gould and H. C. Richter, del^t_ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]

COLLOCALIA ARIEL, _Gould_.
Fairy Martin.

_Collocalia Ariel_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., October 11, 1842.

Until my arrival in the colony of New South Wales I had no idea of the existence of this new and beautiful Martin, nor in fact until I was awakened by its twittering notes at the bed-room window of the inn at Maitland, did I discover that I was surrounded by hundreds of this species, which were breeding under the verandahs and corners of the windows, precisely after the manner of the Common Martin of Europe. Several of their bottle-shaped nests were built round the house, and from these I obtained as many eggs as I desired.

It is numerously dispersed over all the southern portions of Australia, and like every other member of the genus it is strictly migratory, making the southern latitudes its summer residence. It usually arrives in the month of August and departs again in February or March; during this interval it rears two or three broods. The Fairy Martin, unlike the favourite Swallow of the Australians, although enjoying a most extensive range, appears to have an antipathy to the country near the sea, for neither in New South Wales nor at Swan River have I ever heard of its approaching the coast-line nearer than twenty miles; hence while I never observed it at Sydney, the town of Maitland on the Hunter is annually visited by it in great numbers. In Western Australia it is common between Northam and York, while the towns of Perth and Fremantle on the coast, are, like Sydney, unfavoured with its presence. I observed it throughout the district of the Upper Hunter, as well as in every part of the interior, breeding in various localities, wherever suitable situations presented themselves, sometimes in the holes of low decayed trees; while not unfrequently clusters of nests were attached to the perpendicular banks of rivers, the sides of rocks, &c., always, however, in the vicinity of water. The nest, which is bottle-shaped with a long neck, is composed of mud or clay, and like that of our Common Martin, is only constructed in the morning and evening, unless the day be wet or lowery. In the construction of the nests they appear to work in small companies, six or seven assisting in the formation of each nest, one remaining within and receiving the mud brought by the others in their mouths: in shape they are nearly round, but vary in size from four to six or seven inches in diameter; the spouts being eight, nine or ten inches in length. When built on the sides of rocks or in the hollows of trees they are placed without any regular order, in clusters of thirty or forty together, some with their spouts inclining downwards, others at right angles, &c.; they are lined with feathers and fine grasses. The eggs, which are four or five in number, are sometimes white, at others spotted and blotched with red; eleven-sixteenths of an inch long by half an inch broad.

Its flight closely resembles that of the Common Martin; the stomach is tolerably muscular and the food consists of small flies.

The sexes cannot be distinguished by their outward appearance.

Crown of the head rust-red; back, scapularies and wing-coverts deep steel-blue; wings and tail dark brown; rump buffy white; upper tail-coverts brown; under surface white, tinged with rust-red, particularly on the sides of the neck and flanks; the feathers of the throat with a fine line of dark brown down the centre; irides blackish brown; bill blackish grey; legs and feet olive-grey.

The figures are of the natural size.

MEROPS ORNATUS: _Lath._

_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]

MEROPS ORNATUS, _Lath_.
Australian Bee-eater.

_Merops ornatus_, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp. p. xxxv.

_Mountain Bee-eater_, Lewin, Birds of New Holl., pl. 18.

_Variegated Bee-eater_, Lath. Gen. Syn., Supp., vol. ii. p. 155, pl.
128.—Ib. Gen. Hist., vol. iv. p. 130, pl. lxix.—Shaw, Gen.
Zool., vol. viii. p. 158.

_Merops melanurus_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p.
208.—Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 238.

_Dee-weed-gang_, Aborigines of New South Wales.

_Bëe-roo-bëe-roo-long_, Aborigines of the lowland, and

_Ber̈-rin-ber̈-rin_, Aborigines of the mountain districts of Western
Australia.

_Bee-eater_ of the Colonists.

There can, I think, be little doubt of the present being the only species of Bee-eater inhabiting Australia, since no other came under my notice during my expedition; nor have I seen examples differing from those here figured in any of the numerous collections I have had opportunities of examining, consequently the specific term of _ornatus_ long since applied to it by Dr. Latham must be the one adopted, that of _melanurus_ given by Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield sinking into a synonym.

This bird has so many attractions that it will doubtless be always regarded as a general favourite with the Australians; the extreme beauty of its plumage, the elegance of its form and the graceful manner of its flight all combining to render it especially worthy of their notice; besides which, many pleasing associations are connected with it, for, like the Swallow and the Cuckoo of Europe, its arrival is a certain harbinger of the return of spring, which in the southern hemisphere is, as is well known, at the opposite period of the year to that of the northern; hence the Australian Bee-eater, which is strictly migratory, arrives in New South Wales and all parts of the same latitude in August, and departs northwards in March, the intervening period being employed in the duties of incubation and of rearing its progeny. During the summer months it is universally spread over the whole southern portion of the continent from east to west; and it will be interesting to ornithologists generally, as it was to myself, to know that at Port Essington on the northern coast it is also strictly migratory, being abundantly dispersed over that part of the country when it is absent from the southern. “On my arrival at Port Essington in July,” says Mr. Gilbert, “this bird was extremely abundant in every variety of situation. It is a migratory bird in this part of Australia; a few pairs perhaps remaining to breed, as is evident from the natives being well acquainted with their mode of incubating, and also from my having in one instance seen a pair of old birds with their young, which could not long have left the nest as they were still being fed by their parents. With the exception of these I did not observe this species in any part of the Peninsula or the adjacent islands, from the latter part of August to the time of my leaving in the following March.”

I have never seen this bird either in collections from New Guinea or from any other of the Indian islands; hence we may naturally conclude that the extreme northern parts of Australia form the boundary of its range in that direction, as New South Wales and the same degree of latitude do on the southern. In South Australia and at Swan River it is equally numerous as in New South Wales, generally giving preference to the inland districts rather than to those near the coast; hence it is rarely to be met with in the neighbourhood of Perth, while in the York district it is very common. In New South Wales I found it especially abundant on the Upper Hunter, and all other parts towards the interior, as far as I had an opportunity of exploring. Its favourite resorts during the day are the open, arid and thinly-timbered forests; and in the evening the banks and sides of rivers, where numbers may frequently be seen in company. It almost invariably selects a dead or leafless branch whereon to perch, and from which it darts forth to capture the passing insect, much after the manner of many other of the Fissirostral birds, particularly the Kingfishers, to which it also assimilates in the upright position it assumes while perched. Its flight somewhat resembles that of the _Artami_, and although it is capable of being sustained for some time, the bird more frequently performs short excursions, and returns to the branch it had left.

I have had frequent opportunities of observing both the eggs and young, which are deposited and reared in holes, made in the sandy banks of rivers or any similar situation in the forest favourable for the purpose. The entrance is about the size of a mouse-hole, and is continued for a yard in depth, at the end of which is an excavation of sufficient size for the reception of the parent, and the deposition on the bare sand of four or five beautiful white eggs, which are ten lines long by eight or nine lines broad.

The stomach is tolerably muscular, and the food consists of various insects, principally coleoptera and neuroptera.

The sexes are alike in plumage, and may be thus described:—

Forehead, line over the eye, back and wing-coverts brownish-green; crown of the head and nape orange-brown; wings orange-brown, passing into green on the extremities of the primaries, and broadly tipped with black; two or three of the scapularies, lower part of the back, rump and upper tail-coverts cœrulean blue; tail black, most of the feathers, particularly the two centre ones, slightly margined with blue; lores, line beneath and behind the eye and ear-coverts velvety black; beneath which is a stripe of cœrulean blue; throat rich yellow, passing into orange on the sides of the neck; beneath this a broad band of deep black; under surface like the back, becoming green on the lower part of the abdomen; under tail-coverts light blue; irides light brownish red; bill black; legs and feet mealy greenish grey.

The young are destitute of the black on the throat, and of the blue line beneath the eye.

The figures are of the natural size.

EURYSTOMUS AUSTRALIS: _Swains._

_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]

EURYSTOMUS AUSTRALIS, _Swains_.
Australian Roller.

_Eurystomus orientalis_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p.
202.

_Eurystomus Australis_, Swains. Anim. in Menag., p. 326.—Ib. Class. of
Birds, vol. ii. p. 333.

_Coracias pacifica_, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. xxvii?

_Pacific Roller_, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 371?

_Natay-kin_, Aborigines of New South Wales.

_Dollar Bird_ of the Colonists.

By the older writers this species was considered to be identical with the _Eurystomus orientalis_, and the merit of first pointing out its distinguishing characters is due to Mr. Swainson, who observes that it is “smaller than _E. orientalis_; has the bill less compressed, and therefore much broader; the colours lighter, but the wings much bluer; the spurious wings entirely vivid blue, as well as the outer webs of the quills; while in _orientalis_ these parts are almost black.”

It is a very local species, as I have never seen it from or met with it in any other part of Australia excepting in New South Wales, and even there it is migratory, arriving early in the spring; having brought forth its progeny, it retires northwards on the approach of winter. From what I saw of it,—and I had opportunities of observing it almost daily for some length of time,—it seemed to be most active about sun-rise and sunset, and during cloudy days; in sultry weather it was generally perched upon some dead branch in a state of quietude. It is a very bold bird at all times, but particularly so during the breeding-season, when it comes down with the utmost fury upon any intruder that may venture to approach the hole in the tree in which its eggs are deposited.

When engaged in the capture of insects it usually perches upon the dead upright branch of a tree growing beside and overhanging water, where it sits very erect, soaring all around until a passing insect attracts its notice, when it suddenly darts off, secures its victim, and returns to the same branch; at other times it may constantly be seen on the wing, mostly in pairs, flying just above the tops of the trees, diving and rising again with rapid turns in the most beautiful manner. During flight, which, when performed at a considerable elevation, is heavy and laboured, the white spot in the centre of each wing, then widely expanded, shows very distinctly, and hence the name of Dollar Bird bestowed upon it by the colonists.

It is a very noisy bird, particularly in dull weather, when it often emits its peculiar chattering note during flight.

It is said to take the young Parrots from their holes and kill them, but this I never witnessed; the stomachs of the many I dissected contained nothing but the remains of coleoptera.

The breeding-season lasts from September to December; and the eggs, which are three and sometimes four in number, are deposited in the hole of a tree without any nest; they are of a beautiful pearly white, considerably pointed at the smaller end; their medium length is one inch and five lines, and breadth one inch and two lines.

The sexes are alike in plumage.

Head and neck dark brown, passing into the sea-green of the upper surface, and deepening into black on the lores; spurious wing, outer webs of the basal half of the quills, outer webs of the secondaries and the basal half of the outer webs of the tail-feathers vivid blue; six of the primaries with a greenish white basal band; extremities of the primaries black; tail green at the base, black at the tip; throat vivid blue, with a stripe of lighter blue down the centre of each feather; under surface of the shoulder and abdomen light green; under surface of the inner webs of the primaries, and of all but the two centre tail-feathers deep blue, the former interrupted by the greenish white band; irides dark brown; eyelash, bill and feet red; inside of the mouth yellow.

The figures are of the natural size.

DACELO GIGANTEA: _Leach_.

_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]

DACELO GIGANTEA, _Leach_.
Great Brown Kingfisher.

_Alcedo gigantea_, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 245.

—— _fusca_, Gmel. edit. of Linn. Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 454.

_Grand Martin-pêcheur de la Nouvelle Guinée_, Son. Voy., p. 171. pl.
106.—Buff. Hist. des Ois., tom. vii. p. 181.—Pl. Enl. 663.?

_Martin Chasseur_, Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nd edit. p. lxxxviii.

_Giant Kingfisher_, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 53.

_Great Brown Kingfisher_, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. ii. p. 609.—Ibid.
Supp., vol. ii. p. 143.—White’s Journ., pl. in p.
137.—Phill. Voy., pl. in p. 287.—Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. iv.
p. 9.

_Dacelo gigantea_, Leach, Zool. Misc., vol. ii. p. 126. pl. cvi.—Vig.
and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 204.—Swains. Class.
of Birds, vol. ii. p. 335.

_Choucalcyon australe_, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 248.

_Paralcyon gigas_, Gloger.

_Alcedo gigas_, Bodd.

_Dacelo gigas_, G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, 2nd edit. p. 14.

_Gogo-bera_, Aborigines of New South Wales.

_Laughing Jackass_ of the Colonists.

The _Dacelo gigantea_ is a bird with which every resident and traveller in New South Wales is more or less familiar, for independently of its large size, which in itself would tend to attract attention, its voice is so extraordinary as to be unlike that of any other living creature. In its disposition it is by no means shy, and when any new objects are presented to its notice, such as a party traversing the bush or pitching their tent in the vicinity of its retreat, it becomes very prying and inquisitive, often perching on the dead branch of some neighbouring tree, and watching with the greatest curiosity the kindling of the fire and the preparation of the meal; its presence, however, owing to the quietude with which it passes through the forest, and the almost noiseless manner in which it settles, is seldom detected until it emits its extraordinary gurgling, laughing note, which generally calls forth some exclamation according with the temper of the hearer, such as “There is our old friend the Laughing Jackass,” or an epithet of a less friendly character: not unfrequently does its life pay the penalty of its temerity; for if, as is often the case, the traveller’s larder be ill-provided and his appetite keen, but a few minutes elapse before it is roasting over the fire it was lately surveying with so much curiosity. So remarkable are the sounds emitted by the bird that they have been noted by nearly every writer on New South Wales and its productions. Mr. Caley states that its “loud noise, somewhat like laughing, may be heard at a considerable distance, from which circumstance, and its uncouth appearance, it probably received the extraordinary appellation given to it by the settlers on their first arrival in the colony.” Captain Sturt says, “Its cry, which resembles a chorus of wild spirits, is apt to startle the traveller who may be in jeopardy, as if laughing and mocking at his misfortune;” and Mr. Bennett, in his ‘Wanderings,’ says, “Its peculiar gurgling laugh, commencing in a low and gradually rising to a high and loud tone, is often heard in all parts of the colony; the deafening noise being poured forth while the bird remains perched upon a neighbouring tree; it rises with the dawn, when the woods re-echo with its gurgling laugh; at sunset it is again heard; and as that glorious orb sinks in the west, a last ‘good night’ is given in its peculiar tones to all within hearing.”

The Great Brown Kingfisher does not inhabit Van Diemen’s Land, nor has it yet been met with in Western Australia; it may be said to be almost solely confined to that portion of Australia lying between Spencer’s Gulf and Moreton Bay, the south-eastern corner, as it were, of the continent. The plate in the Pl. Enl., quoted above, has been considered by all previous writers to have reference to this bird, and while I coincide in this opinion, I think that some mistake must have arisen as to the locality, and that it never visits New Guinea nor even the northern coast of Australia, where its place is supplied by the _Dacelo cervina_ and _D. Leachii_. Unlike most other species, it frequents every variety of situation; the luxuriant brushes stretching along the coast, the more thinly-timbered forest, the belts of trees studding the parched plains and the brushes of the higher ranges being alike favoured with its presence; over all these localities it is rather thinly dispersed being nowhere very numerous.

I believe that this bird seldom, if ever, drinks; consequently the most arid plains are as suitable to its habits as the shrouded river sides and the flat brushes near the coast.

Its food, which is of a mixed character, consists exclusively of animal substances; reptiles, insects and crabs, however, appear to be its favourite diet, upon which it is destined by nature to subsist: it devours lizards with avidity, and it is not an unfrequent sight to see it bearing off a snake in its bill to be eaten at leisure; it also preys on small mammalia. I recollect shooting a Great Brown Kingfisher in South Australia in order to secure a fine rat I saw hanging from its bill, and which proved to be a rare species inhabiting the plains of that part of the country. It breeds during the months of August and September, and generally selects a hole in a large gum-tree for the purpose; making no nest, but depositing its beautiful pearl-white eggs, which are one inch and nine lines long by one inch and five lines broad, on the decomposed wood at the bottom of the hole. When there are young ones in it, it defends its breeding-place with great courage and daring, darting down upon any intruder who may attempt to ascend the tree, and inflicting severe and dangerous blows with its pointed bill.

The sexes present so little difference in the colouring of their plumage, that they are scarcely distinguishable from each other; neither do the young at a month old exhibit any great variation from the adult, the only difference being that the markings are somewhat darker and the brown more generally diffused.

It bears confinement remarkably well, and is one of the most amusing birds for the aviary with which I am acquainted: examples have been brought alive to England; one lived for several years in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London, and at the moment I am writing (April 1843) a fine individual brought from New South Wales by Mr. Yaldwyn, is now living at his seat at Blackdown in Sussex, where it attracts the attention of every one by its singular actions and extraordinary notes, which are poured forth as freely as in its native wilds.

Forehead brown, each feather with a stripe of blackish brown down the centre; crown of the head, lores, ear-coverts, and a broad band passing round the occiput blackish brown; space between the crown of the head and the band encircling the occiput, and the back of the neck buff, crossed by fine irregular lines of dark brown; back and wings brownish black; the wing-coverts and rump tipped with verditer green; primaries white at the base, black for the remainder of their length, and stained with green on their outer margins immediately behind the white; upper tail-coverts blackish brown, crossed by several broad irregular bands of rusty red; tail brownish black, tipped with white, the white increasing in extent as the feathers recede from the centre; the central feathers crossed near the tip with rusty red; the lateral feathers with brownish black, the bands being very narrow near the tip, and gradually increasing in breadth as they approach the base, where the white interspaces also become tinged with rusty red; under surface pale buffy white, crossed by fine irregular freckled markings of dark brown; upper mandible brownish black; under mandible pale buff; feet olive; irides dark brown; eyelash olive-brown.

The figures represent a male and two young of the natural size.

DACELO LEACHII: _Vig. & Horsf._

_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]

DACELO LEACHII, _Vig. and Horsf._
Leach’s Kingsfisher.

_Dacelo Leachii_, Lath. MSS. Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv.
p. 205.

Specimens of this fine Kingsfisher are contained in the British Museum, the Linnean Society, and my own collections, all of which were procured on the north-east coast of Australia, where it evidently replaces the _Dacelo gigantea_ of New South Wales and South Australia.

The specimen in the Linnean Society’s museum was presented by Dr. Brown, who procured it in Keppel Bay on the east coast; and it was subsequently seen at Shoalwater Bay and Broad Sound on the same coast; my own specimens were obtained at Cape York, the north-eastern extremity of Australia.

The habits, actions, food, and indeed the whole of the economy, are so precisely like those of the _Dacelo gigantea_ that a separate description of them is entirely unnecessary.

The male has the head and back of the neck striated with brown and white; sides of the neck and under surface white, crossed with very narrow irregular markings of brown, these markings becoming much broader and conspicuous on the under surface of the shoulder; back brownish black; wing-coverts and rump shining azure-blue; wings deep blue; primaries white at the base, black on their inner webs and blue on the outer; tail rich deep blue, all but the two centre feathers irregularly barred near the extremity and largely tipped with white; upper mandible brownish black, under mandible pale buff; irides dark brown; feet olive.

The female differs but little from the male in the colouring of the plumage, except that the tail-feathers, instead of being of a rich blue barred and tipped with white, are of a light chestnut-brown conspicuously barred with bluish black.

The Plate represents the two sexes about the natural size.

DACELO CERVINA: _Gould_.

_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]

DACELO CERVINA, _Gould_.
Fawn-breasted Kingfisher.

_Dacelo cervina_, Gould, Birds of Australia, Part II. cancelled.

_Lä-rool_, Aborigines of Port Essington.

The northern and north-western portions of Australia constitute the true habitat of this species; it was observed in tolerable abundance by Captain Grey during his expedition to the latter part of the country, and specimens of it have also formed a part of every collection of any extent made at Port Essington. In disposition it appears to be more shy and wary than the _Dacelo gigantea_ of New South Wales, of which it is a representative. Mr. Gilbert, whose observations were made on the Cobourg Peninsula, states that it “inhabits well-wooded forests, generally in pairs, is extremely shy and very difficult to procure; it is very fond of perching on the topmost dead branch of a tree, where it has an uninterrupted view of every thing passing around, and pours out its loud discordant tones. Sometimes three or four pairs may be heard at one time, when the noise is so great that no other sound can be heard.

“The natives tell me that it breeds in the honey-season, which is during the months of May, June and July.”

The food of this Kingfisher is doubtless similar to that of the _Dacelo gigantea_. The stomachs of those examined by Mr. Gilbert were tolerably muscular, and contained the remains of coleopterous and other kinds of insects.

When fully adult the male differs from his mate in having the tail-feathers of a deep and splendid blue instead of brown; a feature which will be readily perceived on reference to the accompanying Plate.

The male has the feathers of the head buffy white, with a central stripe of dark brown, the latter colour becoming most conspicuous on the occiput; throat white; cheeks, ear-coverts, back of the neck, chest and all the under surface sienna-yellow, crossed on the flanks with very minute irregular zigzag bands of brown; primaries black at the tip, white at the base; the base of their external webs, the secondaries and spurious wing rich china blue; greater and lesser wing-coverts, lower part of the back and upper tail-coverts shining light blue; tail and the longest of the upper tail-coverts rich deep blue, the former broadly tipped with white; irides greenish white; upper mandible blackish brown, the cutting edges greenish white; lower mandible greenish white, the base dark brown on the sides, and blue on the under surface; tarsi and feet emerald green; claws black.

The female has the feathers of the head, cheeks, and ear-coverts buffy white, with a central stripe of dark brown; throat white; back of the neck, chest and all the under surface sienna-yellow; the chest, flanks and abdomen crossed by fine zigzag lines of brown; upper part of the back and scapularies umber-brown; primaries blackish brown at the tip and white at the base; the basal portion of their external webs, the secondaries spurious and the wing rich china blue; greater and lesser wing-coverts and upper tail-coverts light shining blue; tail and the longest of the upper coverts rich chestnut-brown, which passes into buff at the tip, the whole transversely marked with eight or nine bands of rich blue black.

The figures are those of the two sexes of the natural size.

HALCYON SANCTUS: _Vig. & Horsf._

_J. & E. Gould del_ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]

HALCYON SANCTUS, _Vig. and Horsf._
Sacred Halcyon.

_Sacred Kingsfisher_, Phill. Bot. Bay, pl. in p. 156.—White’s Voy.,
pl. in p. 193.

_Halcyon Sanctus_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p.
206.—Gould, Syn. of Birds of Aust., Part III.

_Halcyon sacra_, Jard. and Selb. Ill. Orn., vol. ii. pls. 96 and 97.

_Dacelo chlorocephala_, var. β. Less. Traité Orn., p. 246.

_Kingsfisher_ of the Colonists.

_Kün-yeë-nüh_ of the Aborigines, Western Australia.

On reference to the synonyms given above, it will be seen that a difference of opinion is entertained from the authors of the “Illustrations in Ornithology” respecting this species being identical with the _Halcyon collaris_ of Mr. Swainson, a bird which I have not yet seen from Australia, although it may possibly be found in the northern part of that continent, since it is common in Java; and I find that Mr. Swainson, in his recently published “Classification of Birds,” has arranged them as distinct.

The Sacred Halcyon does not inhabit Van Diemen’s Land, but is very generally dispersed over the Australian continent. I have specimens from nearly every locality: those from Port Essington on the north are precisely identical with those of the south coast; on the other hand, those inhabiting Western Australia are a trifle larger in all their measurements, but otherwise present no differences of sufficient importance to warrant their being considered as distinct.

It is a summer resident in New South Wales and throughout the southern portion of the continent, retiring northwards after the breeding-season. It begins to disappear in December, and by the end of January few are to be seen: solitary individuals may, however, be met with even in the depth of winter. They return again in spring, commencing in August, and by the middle of September are plentifully dispersed over all parts of the country, inhabiting alike the most thickly wooded brushes, the mangrove-forests which border, in many parts, the armlets of the sea, and the more open and thinly-timbered plains of the interior, often in the most dry and arid situations far distant from water; and it would appear that, as is the case with many of the insectivorous birds of Australia, a supply of that element is not essential to its existence, since, from the localities it is often found breeding in, it must necessarily pass long periods without being able to obtain it.

The brilliant and metallic lustre of its plumage renders it a conspicuous object in the bush: its loud piercing call, also, often betrays its presence, particularly during the season of incubation, when the bird becomes more and more clamorous as the tree in which its eggs are deposited is approached by the intruder. The note most frequently uttered is a loud _pee-pee_, continued at times to a great length, resembling a cry of distress. It sits very upright, generally perching on a small dead branch for hours together, merely flying down to capture its prey, and in most instances returning again to the site it has just left. Its food is of a very mixed character, and varies with the nature of the localities it inhabits. It greedily devours the manti, grasshoppers and caterpillars, not refusing lizards and very small snakes, all of which are swallowed whole, the latter being killed by beating their heads against a stone or other hard substance, after the manner of the Common Kingsfisher. Specimens killed in the neighbourhood of salt-marshes had their stomachs literally crammed with crabs and other crustaceous animals; while engaged in the capture of which it may be observed sitting silently on the low mangrove-bushes skirting the pools which every receding tide leaves either dry or with a surface of wet mud, upon which crabs are to be found in abundance. I have never seen it plunge into the water after fish like the true Kingsfishers, and I believe it never resorts to that mode of obtaining its prey. On the banks of the Hunter its most favourite food is the larvæ of a species of ant, which it procures by excavating holes in the nests of this insect which are constructed around the boles and dead branches of the _Eucalypti_, and which resemble excrescences of the tree itself.

The season of nidification commences in October and lasts till December, the hollow spouts of the gum and boles of the apple trees being generally selected as a receptacle for the eggs, which are four or five in number, perfectly white, one inch and a line in length, and ten lines in diameter.

The sexes present no difference either in their size or colouring, and the young are only distinguished by being of a less brilliant hue, and by the wing-coverts and feathers of the breast being edged with brown.

Crown of the head, back, and scapularies dull green; wings and tail green, slightly tinged with blue; ear-coverts, and an obscure circle bounding the green of the head, greenish black; rump verditer green; throat white; line from the nostrils over the eye, nuchal band, and all the under surface buff, becoming deeper on the flanks; bill black, the basal portion of the under mandible flesh-white; feet flesh-red, tinged with brown; irides dark brown.

The Plate represents an old and a young bird of the natural size.

HALCYON PYRRHOPYGIA: _Gould_.

_J. & E. Gould del,^t_ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]

HALCYON PYRRHOPYGIA, _Gould_.
Red-backed Halcyon.

_Halcyon pyrrhopygia_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., September 8,
1840.

This new Halcyon is an inhabitant of the interior, but over what extent of country it may range is not yet known. The only parts where I observed it was the myall-brushes (_Acacia pendula_) of the Lower Namoi, particularly those growing on the edge of the large plain skirting the Nundawar range of Major Sir Thomas Mitchell. It was usually seen sitting very upright on the dead branches of the myall- and gum-trees, sometimes on those growing out on the hot plains, at others on those close by the river-side. I succeeded in obtaining both old and young birds, which, judging from the size of the latter, I should suppose had left their breeding-place about a month before I arrived in the neighbourhood of the Namoi, in December. I also saw in this district the common or Sacred Halcyon, but in far less abundance than between the ranges and the coast. This latter species may be hereafter found to be more exclusively an inhabitant of the country bordering the sea, while the Red-backed Halcyon may be exclusively a denizen of the distant interior. The unusual colouring of the back at once distinguishes it from all the other members of the genus inhabiting Australia, but in its general economy and mode of living it presents no observable difference.

Whether it remains during the whole of the year, or is a migratory bird like the common species, I was not able to learn; for although Mr. Charles Coxen had previously informed me of the existence of such a Halcyon on the Namoi, he could give me no further account of it.

Crown of the head dull green, intermingled with white, giving it a striated appearance: a broad black stripe commences at the base of the bill, passes through the eye, and encircles the back of the head; upper part of the back and scapularies green; remainder of the wings bluish green; lower part of the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts red; tail green, tinged with blue; throat, a broad collar encircling the back of the neck, and all the under surface white; bill black, the base of the lower mandible flesh-white; irides blackish brown; feet dark olive-brown.

The figure is of the natural size.

HALCYON SORDIDUS: _Gould_.

_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]

HALCYON SORDIDUS, _Gould_.
Sordid Halcyon.

_Halcyon sordidus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part X. p. 72.

I possess two specimens of this species of _Halcyon_, which were killed by Mr. Bynoe on the north coast of Australia; unfortunately they were unaccompanied by any information respecting their habits and economy; they appear to be fully adult, and equal in size the _Halcyon collaris_,—a species, which, although said to be Australian, I have no authentic evidence of its ever having been killed therein.

Head, back, scapularies and wing-coverts brownish oil-green; wings greenish blue, gradually changing into green on the tips of the tertiaries; collar round the back of the neck and all the under surface buffy white; tail greenish blue; upper mandible and tip of the lower one black; base of the latter flesh-white.

The figures are of the natural size.

HALCYON MACLEAYII: _Jard. & Selb._

_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]

HALCYON MACLEAYII, _Jard. & Selb._
MacLeay’s Halcyon.

_Halcyon MacLeayii_, Jard. and Selb. Ill. Orn., vol. iii. pl. 101.

_Halcyon incinctus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 142,
female.

_Bush Kingfisher_, Residents at Port Essington.

There certainly has not yet been discovered a more beautiful Halcyon in any part of the world than the one figured in the accompanying Plate, which has been dedicated to Mr. Alexander MacLeay by the authors of the “Illustrations of Ornithology” as a tribute of respect, in the propriety of which I entirely concur.

The extreme brilliancy of the plumage of this bird would seem to indicate that it is an inhabitant of a hotter climate than that of New South Wales, and the correctness of this inference is borne out by the fact that the _Halcyon MacLeayii_ has only yet been found on the extreme northern portion of the continent; it is tolerably abundant at Port Essington, and it is also spread over every part of the Cobourg Peninsula suited to its peculiar habits; like the other members of the genus to which it belongs, it is rarely if ever seen near water, and evinces so decided a preference for the open forests of the interior of the country that it has obtained the name of “Bush Kingfisher” from the residents at Port Essington; it is generally dispersed about in pairs, and feeds on small reptiles, insects and their larvæ; its general note is a loud _pee-pee_ uttered with considerable rapidity. It incubates in November and December, sometimes forming its nest in the hollow trunks of trees, and at others excavating a hole for itself in the nest of the tree-ants, which presents so prominent and singular a feature in the scenery of the country: the nest of the _H. Macleayii_ is easily discovered, for on the approach of an intruder the birds immediately commence flying about in a very wild manner, uttering at the same time a loud piercing cry of alarm; the eggs are three or four in number, of a pearly white and nearly round in form, being eleven lines long by ten broad.

So much difference exists in the plumage of the sexes that Mr. Gilbert states he was for some time induced to regard them as specifically distinct; an error into which I had myself previously fallen when describing the female as a new species in the “Proceedings of the Zoological Society” as quoted above; “but upon closer observation,” adds Mr. Gilbert, “I soon satisfied myself that the difference of plumage was merely sexual, the dissection of a large number of specimens fully proving that those with a ring round the neck are males and those without it females.”

The male has a line under the eye and ear-coverts deep glossy black; head, occiput, wings and tail rich deep prussian blue; primaries and secondaries white at the base, forming a conspicuous spot when the wings are spread; for the remainder of their length these feathers are black, margined externally with light prussian blue; immediately before the eye an oval spot of white; collar surrounding the back of the neck and all the under surface white, tinged with buff on the lower part of the flanks; back and upper tail-coverts verditer blue; scapularies verditer green, both these colours bounded near the white collar with prussian blue; under surface of the wing white, the tips of the coverts black; under surface of the tail black; bill black, the basal portion of the under mandible yellowish white; tarsi black; inner side of the feet and back of the tarsi ash-grey; irides very dark brown.

The general colours of the female are similar to those of the male, but she differs from her mate in being entirely destitute of the white collar at the back of the neck, which part is deep prussian blue, thus uniting the blue of the occiput and of the back; in the tints being much less brilliant in the back, being of a dull brownish verditer green, and in the upper tail-coverts pale verditer green instead of blue; upper mandible black; lower mandible half-way from the tip and along the whole of the cutting edges black, the remainder being fleshy white tinged with blue where it joins the black; legs and feet greenish grey.

The young male resembles the female in colour, but is still less brilliant; has the back of a purer green; the under surface tinged with buff; the spot on the lores deep buff; and the collar at the back of a deep buff, interrupted by some of the feathers of the occiput.

The figures are those of a male and a female of the natural size.

ALCYONE AZUREA.

_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]

ALCYONE AZUREA.
Azure Kingsfisher.

_Alcedo azurea_, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. xxxii.—Lewin, Birds of New
Holl., pl. 1.—Swains. Zool. Ill., pl. 26.

_Alcedo tribrachys_, Shaw, Nat. Misc., pl. 681.—Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nd
edit., p. lxxxviii.

_Tri-digitated Kingsfisher_, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 105.

_Azure Kingsfisher_, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. Add., p. 372.—Ib.
Gen. Hist., vol. iv. p. 61.

_Ceyx azurea_, Jard. and Selb. Ill. Orn., vol. ii. pl. 55. fig.
1.—Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 208.

_Alcyone Australis_, Swains. Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 336.

_Ceyx cyanea_, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 241.—Ib. Man. d’Orn., tom. ii.
p. 96.

_Alcyone azurea_, G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd edit. p. 14.

With the exception of Swan River, every colony of Australia, from Port Essington on the north-west to Van Diemen’s Land in the extreme south, is inhabited by Azure Kingsfishers; but as they, although closely allied, constitute at least three species, the present page must necessarily treat exclusively of the one that inhabits New South Wales and South Australia, over the whole of which countries it is dispersed, wherever brooks, ponds and other waters occur suitable to its habits and mode of life. In size and in the brilliancy of its plumage, the Azure Kingsfisher is intermediate between the species inhabiting the north coast and that found in Van Diemen’s Land; although generically distinct from the Kingsfisher of Europe (_Alcedo Ispida_), it has many characters in common with that bird. It subsists almost exclusively on small fish and aquatic insects, which it captures in the water by darting down from some bare branch overhanging the stream, and to which it generally returns to kill and devour its prey, which is swallowed entire and head foremost, after the manner of the little favourite of our own island. It is a solitary bird, a pair, and frequently only one, being found at the same spot. During the breeding-season it becomes querulous and active, and even pugnacious if any intruder of the same species should venture within the precincts of its abode. The males at this season have great confidence, and chase each other up and down the stream with arrow-like quickness, the rich azure-blue of the back glittering in the sun, and appearing more like a meteor as it darts by the spectator than a bird. The task of incubation commences in August and terminates in January, during which period two broods are frequently brought forth. The eggs, which are of a beautiful pearly or pinkish white and rather round in form, are deposited at the extremity of a hole, in a perpendicular or shelving bank bordering the stream, without any nest being made for their reception; they are from five to seven in number, three quarters of an inch broad by seven-eighths of an inch long. The young at the first moult assume the plumage of the adult, which is never afterwards changed. The hole occupied by the bird is frequently almost filled up with the bones of small fish, which are discharged from the throat and piled up round the young in the form of a nest. Immediately on leaving their holes the young follow the parents from one part of the brook to another, and are fed by them while resting on some stone or branch near the water’s edge; they soon, however, become able to obtain their own food, and may be observed at a very early age plunging into the water to a considerable depth to capture small fish and insects.

The sexes are precisely similar in the colouring of their plumage, neither do they differ in size. The young are very clamorous, frequently uttering their twittering cry as their parents pass and repass the branch on which they are sitting.