ALCYONE PUSILLA.
Little Kingfisher.
Ceyx pusilla, Temm. Pl. Col., 595. fig. 3.
Nu-reä-bin-mo, Aborigines of the Cobourg Peninsula.
This lovely little Kingfisher is a native of the northern shores of Australia; the specimens in my collection were all procured at Port Essington where it is a rare bird; and from it always inhabiting the densest mangroves, is not only seldom seen, but is extremely difficult to procure; in general habits and manners it very much resembles the Alcyone azurea, but its note is somewhat more shrill and piping, and its flight more unsteady. Specimens of this species from New Guinea, which I have had opportunities of examining in the noble collection at Leyden, present no difference whatever from those found in Australia.
The food of the Alcyone pusilla consists exclusively of fish, which are taken precisely after the manner of the Common Kingfisher of our own island.
The sexes are alike in size and colour.
Lores, a tuft behind the ear-coverts and under surface silky white; forehead, sides of the neck, wing-coverts and the margins of the secondaries green; primaries brownish black; all the upper surface and a large patch on each side on the chest brilliant intense blue; tail dull deep blue; irides dark blackish brown; bill black; legs and feet greenish grey.
The figures are of the natural size.