BOURNS’S KINGFISHER.
- Ceyx bournsi Steere, List Birds & Mams. Steere Exped. (July, 1890), 10; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1892), 17, 185; Hand-List (1900), 2, 53; Bourns and Worcester, Minnesota Acad. Nat. Sci. Occ. Papers (1894), 1, 47; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 53.
- Ceyx malamaui Steere, List Birds & Mams. Steere Exped. (1890), 10; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1892), 17, 184.
- Ceyx suluensis Blasius, Jour. für Orn. (August, 1890), 141.
- Ceyx margarethæ Blasius, Jour. für Orn. (August, 1890), 141.
Banton (Celestino); Basilan (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Bongao (Everett); Cebu (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Mindanao (Steere Exp., Platen, Bourns & Worcester); Negros (Bourns & Worcester); Romblon (Bourns & Worcester); Sibuyan (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Siquijor (Bourns & Worcester); Sulu (Platen, Bourns & Worcester); Tablas (Bourns & Worcester); Tawi Tawi (Bourns & Worcester, Everett).
Adult (sexes similar).—Above, sides of head and neck, and wings ultramarine to silvery cobalt-blue; having a more or less spotted appearance on head; lores and under parts orange-rufous, but chin, throat, and middle of abdomen white or with a pale yellow wash; alula, primaries, and primary-coverts black; edge of wing and outer web of first alula-quill and of first primary rufous; tail blue, darker than back and coverts. In a male from Banton the wing is 68; tail, 26; culmen from base, 39; tarsus, 10.
“Young.—Similar to the adult, but less brilliant and with a duller red bill; the head, scapulars, and wing-coverts black, with blue ends to the feathers; the blue of the back lighter than in the adult, and inclining to cobalt on the lower back; loral spot as large as in the adult.” (Sharpe.)
This species exists under a number of plumages some of which have been described as separate species. Bourns and Worcester have collected a great number of specimens which show that these variations can not be specific. In part they say:
“We find that we must either multiply the number of small blue woods Ceyces from the Philippines indefinitely or reduce the above-mentioned species [C. bournsi, malamaui, suluensis, and margarethæ] to one. It would be an almost endless task to describe the different phases of plumage shown and we will only say that we have a practically unbroken series between a bird with a magnificent deep blue upper surface and a bird with a fine silvery white upper surface which has not a blue feather on it. In the latter specimens the white occupies exactly the position of the blue in the specimens first mentioned.
“Our series shows that these extraordinary differences of color are independent of sex, age, or locality, some young birds are very light, others very dark. In one case where parent and offspring were killed at one discharge of the gun they exhibited marked differences in color.
“The amount of blue or white is, however, dependent on age to some extent, the young birds always showing much more black on the upper surface than do adults. In the young the bill is at first black tipped with pale horn and the legs and feet are pale flesh-color.
“Ceyx bournsi is a strictly woods form and its shy habits doubtless explain its having been so generally missed by collectors.” (Bourns and Worcester.)