Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean ...

—;;22 COLLECTIONS l^'ROM MELANESIA.This interesting specimen is not easy to determine, being in sizelike D. cervinus and in colour like D. leacliii. As I endeavourto show below, these species, however, run into each other somuch that it is impossible to define the exact characters ofeach.Since I wrote my Monograph 'of the Kingfishers,' our knowledgeof the great Laughing Jackasses of Australia has not been muchincreased. The range of true Daceh has been extended to SoutheasternNew Guinea, where Dacelo intermedins of Salvadori replacesD. cervinus of the Australian continent; but otherwise the numberof species in Australia has remained the same as it was on the completionof that work.A comparison, however, of the large series of Laughing Kingfishersnow in the British Museum raises great doubts in my mindas to the validity of some of the species admitted by me up to 1871and I therefore add a few notes on the birds now before me.The chief difference between D. cervinus and D. leacliii is supposedto consist in the smaller size, the buif-coloured breast, and the blueouter web of the external tail-feather of the former. It seems to menow that this last is a character of no value ; for it is evident thatthe young males commence with a rufous tail like the old females,and that they gain their blue tails by the gradual expansion of theblue cross bands, which unite by degrees until the whole tail becomesuniform blue. Thus there arrives a time in the development of thetail when the outer web of the tail-feather has not cjuite lost itsbars before becoming uniform, and thus the barring of the tail, consideredto be a specific difference between D. cervinus and D. leachii,is of very little importance. As regards the other characters, weshall see what they are worth ; and in order to trace the developmentof the species, I add a description of a young D. cervinus :NestUnri. General colour above dark brown, with scarcely perceptiblelighter brown edges to the feathers of the mantle andscapulars ; least wing-coverts brown like the back ; median andgreater series brown, tipped with pale verditer-blue or light greenishcobalt ; bastard-wing brown, washed with blue ;primary-covertsblackish, externally greenish blue ;quills blackisb, externally deepblue, greener on the primaries, which are white near the bases ofboth webs ; the secondaries edged with white at the tips, the innerones brown like the back ; lower back and rump pale silvery cobaltupper tail-coverts bright rufous, barred with black ; tail-feathersbright rufous, paler at the ends, barred with dark blue, theseblue bands margined above and below with black, the bandsbroader near the base and narrower towards the ends ; the bluebands at the base of the middle feathers already coalescing into oneuniform blue base ; head nearly uniform dark brown, the feathersbroadly centred with blackish, the edges somewhat mottled withreddish-brown markings ; the nape lighter, the crest- feathers beingwhiter, with narrow dark-brown centres ; hind neck clear fulvous,with more or less distinct zigzag cross lines of brown ; lores tawnybuff, as also the feathers below the eye, the latter with blackish