Alcedo pileata Boddaert, Tabl. Pl. Enl. (1783), 41.
Halcyon pileatus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1892), 17, 229;
Hand-List (1900), 2, 57; Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1903),
3, 38; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 54.
Halcyon pileata Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1895), 3, 132,
fig. 37 (head).
Balabac (Steere, Steere Exp., Everett); Basilan (Steere Exp.);
Palawan (Whitehead, Platen, Bourns & Worcester); Tawi Tawi (Bourns
& Worcester). Ceylon, Malay Peninsula, southern India to Canara,
Indo-Chinese countries to China and north to Korea, Java, Sumatra,
Borneo, Celebes.
"Adult male.--General color above purplish blue on the mantle and
scapulars, the center of the back and rump brighter and more purplish
cobalt; upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers purplish blue, the latter
blackish along the inner webs and having black shafts; wing-coverts
black; alula, primary-coverts, and outer aspect of quills purplish
blue, the latter blackish at the ends, and with broad white bases to
the inner webs; crown, sides of face, and ear-coverts black, as well
as the base of the cheeks; round the hind neck a broad white collar;
cheeks and throat white, extending down the center of the breast;
sides of the latter, flanks, abdomen, and under tail-coverts, under
wing-coverts, and axillars rich orange-buff; quills below black, with
a broad white band across the base. 'Bill deep red; mouth pale red;
eyelids pinkish plumbeous, covered with white feathers, except on
the edges, where they are black; feet dark red, brownish in front of
the tarsus; claws dark horn-color; iris dark brown.' (Oates.) Length,
279; culmen, 61; wing, 127; tail, 86; tarsus, 14.
"Adult female.--Does not differ in color from the male. Length, 279;
culmen, 61; wing, 130; tail, 76; tarsus, 13.
"Young birds have dusky blackish fringes to the feathers of the
breast." (Sharpe.)
"Common in Balabac, but very rare in Tawi Tawi and Basilan. The
single Tawi Tawi specimen obtained was shot in the banana trees
about our house on the very day of our departure, and must have been
a straggler. Bill scarlet; iris very dark brown; legs and feet dark
red; nails black." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)