This beautiful bird, the largest of the American Kingfishers, is found throughout the greater portion of South and Central America. In the Argentine Republic it is somewhat rare, though widely distributed, and ranging as far south as Buenos Ayres. Dr. Döring mentions _Ceryle torquata_ amongst the species collected by him on the Rio Negro, in Patagonia; but it is possible that the closely allied _C. stellata_ is meant, as this form represents the larger and more brightly-coloured bird in the Magellanic district. Notwithstanding its wide distribution and great beauty, little has been recorded of the habits of this species. In Amazonia, Bartlett says:--"It breeds in company with _Ceryle amazona_. The nest, however, is placed very much deeper in the bank than in the case of the last-named bird, the hole being from 4 to 6 feet in depth, with a chamber at the end sufficiently large for the young birds when nearly full-grown." 262. CERYLE AMAZONA (Lath.). (AMAZONIAN KINGFISHER.) +Ceryle amazona+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 103; _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 40 (Cordova); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 26 (Entrerios); _Sharpe, Mon. Alc._ pl. xxiv. p. 83. +Chloroceryle amazona+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 446 (Paraná). _Description._--Above dark green, with a white neck-band: beneath white, with a broad chestnut pectoral band; flanks striped with green; under surface of wings white; tail beneath slaty, with white bars on the inner webs: whole length 11·0 inches, wing 5·3, tail 3·4. _Female_ without the red pectoral band, which is incompletely replaced by dark green. _Hab._ South America. This Kingfisher was found by White at Cosquin, where it is usually met with along the _acequias_, or canals made for the purpose of irrigating the cultivated lands. These canals are in places bordered with brushwood and trees, and are tolerably deep, with a swiftly flowing current, and abound in small fishes, so that this bird seems to prefer them as hunting-grounds to the rocky river-bed. In Entrerios Mr. Barrows tells us this Kingfisher is not uncommon along the Lower Uruguay, and sometimes ascends the smaller streams a short distance. It is much more easily approached than _C. torquata_.