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Show 590 MR. R. B. SHARPE ON THE GENUS CEYX. [Nov. 26, that his is the same bird as the red-backed variety of Vosmaer's Ys-vogel, and of Pallas's and Linnaeus's Alcedo tridactyla. Dr. Pucheran thus sums up his argument:-" However the case may be, it is impossible to deny that the variety, or rather the race with the back blue, of which Vosmaer, Linnaeus, and Pallas have spoken, has beeu signalized as a distinct species by Gmelin, who gave it the name of Alcedo purpurea, afterwards the Ceyx purpureus of Cuvier. This synonymy appears to us incontestable ; and this conviction results from it, that, the two types, one with the back blue and the other with the back red, having been first confounded by Linnaeus, and afterwards by Pallas, under the common denomination of Alcedo tridactyla, and the first having been separated by Gmelin (Alcedo purpurea, Gm.; Ceyx purpureus, Cuv.), the name of Alcedo tridactyla ought properly to fall to the second, and to become a synonym of the Ceyx tridactyla of Jardine and Selby, which is the same bird as Ceyx rufidorsa, Strickland. It was the conviction that Dr. Pucheran was right that induced me to coincide in his rectification of the synonymy of these two birds in m y ' Monograph.' But since the examination of Vosmaer's original work, I have had occasion to be somewhat sceptical as to the value of the worthy doctor's argument. Vosmaer, as it appears, was not a binominalist, and nowhere does he apply a Latin name to the birds he was describing in the present instance. Then, again, Dr. Pucheran was most decidedly wrong in saying, in the above-quoted sentence, that the two birds were first confounded by Linnaeus, and afterwards by Pallas ; for the name of the latter has a priority of two years. The plain solution of the difficulty seems to be that the blue-backed bird is the Alcedo tridactyla of Pallas, and therefore ought to bear the name. Vosmaer must be left out of the question, as he never gave a scientific name to the bird at all. And the name rufidorsa must be applied to the red-backed species, Mr. Strickland's being the first description of that bird. I have endeavoured to give the full and correct synonymy of the two species at the end of this paper. I cannot reconcile the 31artin-pecheur de Vile de Lucon of Sonnerat exactly with any of the rufous-headed species. The descriptions of the old authors are so erroneous in many cases that they are not at all to be depended upon ; but if, as Dr. Pucheran suggests, the bird described by him is really distinct from Ceyx rubra, it can only be referable to Ceyx melanura of the Philippines; and of this species his description can only be considered a loose and inaccurate one. Ceyx melanura is a very excellent species, easily distinguishable by the obscure lilac spots on the crown. While engaged in the study of the rufous-headed Ceyces, m y attention was attracted to a plate iu Prof. Reichenbach's ' Handbuch' representing what he calls Ceyx tridactyla, and I could not recognize these figures as being copies of any figures in any work with which I was acquainted. They are intended to represent two Bornean birds in the Dresden Museum. |