Brown-breasted Kingfisher

SCI Name:  Halcyon gularis
Protonym:  Alcedo Gularis Fig.Av.Col.Nom.Syst. p.4
Taxonomy:  Coraciiformes / Alcedinidae / Halcyon
Taxonomy Code:  bnbkin1
Type Locality:  Madagascar, ex PI. col., no. 232, error = Philippine Islands.
Author:  Kuhl
Publish Year:  1820
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

HALCYON
(Alcedinidae; Ϯ Woodland Kingfisher H. senegalensis) Gr. αλκυων alkuōn, αλκυονος alkuonos  mythical bird, long associated with the kingfisher, which nested on the sea.  It was beloved of the gods, who calmed the waves whilst it incubated and raised its young, and such periods of peace and calm became known as “halcyon days”; "HALCYON collaris.  Collared Crabeater.   GENERIC CHARACTER.  Rostrum longissimum, rectum, validum, ad basin latius quam altius, lateribus tetragonis; mandibula superiore rectissima, ad basin rotundata; inferiore carinata, recurvata, margine superioris inferiorum obtegente.  Nares basales, membrana tectæ, apertura nuda, lineari obliqua.  Cauda plerumque mediocris.  Pedes gressorii, digito antico interiore minimo aut nullo.  Typus Genericus Alcedo Senegalensis. Linn.   ...   REFERRING to the observations we have already made on Kingsfishers generally, it will be only necessary to observe, that the species now formed into the genus Halcyon appear entirely excluded from the American continent: their bills are much stronger, thicker, and more rounded than the genuine Kingsfishers, and the under mandible beneath invariably carinated and curving upwards. One of them (the Alcedo Senegalensis of Latham) is known to feed on crabs, the breaking and disjointing of which this structure seems admirably calculated to accomplish   ...   The situation of Halcyon will be between Alcedo and Dacelo; from the last of which it is distinguished by its perfectly straight, acute, and entire upper mandible, which, on the contrary, in Dacelo is notched, the tip bent and obtuse." (Swainson 1821); "Halcyon Swainson, Zool. Illustr., 1, 1820-21 (1821), text to pl. 27.  Type, by original designation, Alcedo senegalensis Linné." (Peters, 1945, V, p. 193).       
Var. Halcion.   
Synon. Alcyon, Calialcyon, Cancrophaga, Cecilia, Ceciliella, Cedola, Chelicutia, Chelicutona, Entomobia, Entomophila, Entomothera, Halcyonopa, Nutchera, Pagurothera, Plesialcyon, Pseudhalcyon.
● (syn. Alcedo Ϯ Common Kingfisher A. atthis ispida) "Halcyon alcedo, King Fisher." (Morris 1837).

gulare / gularis
Mod. L. gularis  of the throat, -throated, gular  < L. gula  throat.
● ex “Coucou Vulgaire d’Afrique” of Levaillant 1806, pl. 200 (Cuculus).
● ex “Gobe-mouche à gorge blanche” of Quoy & Gaimard 1830 (syn. Eopsaltria griseogularis).
● ex “Petit Rolle Violet à Gorge Bleue” of Levaillant 1806 (Eurystomus).
● ex “Cardinal d’Amérique” of Brisson 1760 (Paroaria).
● ex “Colombi-Caille” of Levaillant 1810, pl. 283, and Columba hottentotta Temminck, 1813 (artefact).