- Alcedo meninting Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc. (1821), 13, pt. 1, 172; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1892), 17, 157; Hand-List (1900), 2, 51; Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1903), 3, 33; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 52.
Balabac (Everett); Bongao (Everett); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Palawan (Platen, Whitehead, Bourns & Worcester, White); Sulu (Guillemard); Tawi Tawi (Bourns & Worcester, Everett). Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, southern Tenasserim, Java, Borneo.
“Adult male (type of species).—Above rich purplish blue; the entire back brilliant cobalt, changing to deeper blue on the lower rump and upper tail-coverts; wing-coverts black, washed with purplish blue, with a small spot of brighter blue near the end of each feather; quills black, secondaries externally purplish blue like the scapulars; tail black, washed with purplish blue; crown black, barred with purplish blue rather brighter than the shade of the back; hind neck beautiful purplish blue, with the black cross-bars more or less obsolete; lores blackish, with a rufous supra-loral streak; sides of face, ear-coverts, and cheeks purplish blue like the crown, the feathers mottled with black bases; behind the ear-coverts a broad band of white, tinged with ocherous-buff; throat white with a rufous wash; rest of under surface of body from the lower throat downwards chestnut-rufous, with a patch of purplish blue, lilac-tinged feathers on each side of the upper breast; under wing-coverts chestnut-rufous, a little paler than the breast. ‘Bill blackish brown; feet coral-red; iris brown.’ (Everett.) Length, 135; culmen, 42; wing, 65; tail, 27; tarsus, 9.
“Adult female.—Exactly resembles the male in color, and has even the cheeks blue like the male. It appears, however, always to have the bill more, or less red, and generally the greater part of the lower mandible is rufous. Length, 140; culmen, 42; wing, 66; tail, 27; tarsus, 6.” (Sharpe.)
“Found chiefly along banks of fresh-water streams in forest. More rare in mangrove swamps and never seen by us along the seashore. Iris dark brown; legs and feet deep scarlet; bill black, reddish at base of lower mandible. In a single case the bill was deep scarlet except base and culmen black. Seven birds average as follows: Length, 155; wing, 64; tail, 28; culmen, 37; tarsus, 8.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
Genus ALCYONE Swainson, 1837.
The Philippine species here placed in Alcyone are scarcely separable generically from those of the next following genus. They feed along small forest streams wherein they differ from the members of the genus Ceyx which are always found away from water in forest or in thickets.
Species.
- a1. Back and upper tail-coverts cobalt-blue; head spotted with cobalt-blue; chin and throat orange-buff.
- a2. Back and upper tail-coverts black, more or less spotted with white; chin and throat white.