The general colours of the female are similar to those of the male, but she differs from her mate in being entirely destitute of the white collar at the back of the neck, which part is deep prussian blue, thus uniting the blue of the occiput and of the back; in the tints being much less brilliant in the back, being of a dull brownish verditer green, and in the upper tail-coverts pale verditer green instead of blue; upper mandible black; lower mandible half-way from the tip and along the whole of the cutting edges black, the remainder being fleshy white tinged with blue where it joins the black; legs and feet greenish grey. The young male resembles the female in colour, but is still less brilliant; has the back of a purer green; the under surface tinged with buff; the spot on the lores deep buff; and the collar at the back of a deep buff, interrupted by some of the feathers of the occiput. The figures are those of a male and a female of the natural size. [Illustration: ALCYONE AZUREA. _J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._ ] ALCYONE AZUREA. Azure Kingsfisher. _Alcedo azurea_, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. xxxii.—Lewin, Birds of New Holl., pl. 1.—Swains. Zool. Ill., pl. 26. _Alcedo tribrachys_, Shaw, Nat. Misc., pl. 681.—Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nd edit., p. lxxxviii. _Tri-digitated Kingsfisher_, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 105. _Azure Kingsfisher_, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. Add., p. 372.—Ib. Gen. Hist., vol. iv. p. 61. _Ceyx azurea_, Jard. and Selb. Ill. Orn., vol. ii. pl. 55. fig. 1.—Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 208. _Alcyone Australis_, Swains. Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 336. _Ceyx cyanea_, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 241.—Ib. Man. d’Orn., tom. ii. p. 96. _Alcyone azurea_, G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd edit. p. 14.