Chocolate-backed Kingfisher

SCI Name:  Halcyon badia
Protonym:  Halcyon (Cancrophaga) badia Rev.Mag.Zool. (2), 3 p.264
Taxonomy:  Coraciiformes / Alcedinidae / Halcyon
Taxonomy Code:  chbkin2
Type Locality:  Gaboon.
Author:  Verreaux, J & Verreaux, E
Publish Year:  1851
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).

badia
L. badius chestnut-coloured, brown.
● ex “Cancrophagus castaneus” of Brisson 1760, “Crabier roux” of de Buffon 1770-1783, and “Chesnut Heron” of Latham 1785 (syn. Nycticorax nycticorax).

SUBSPECIES

Chocolate-backed Kingfisher (badia)
SCI Name: Halcyon badia badia
badia
L. badius chestnut-coloured, brown.
● ex “Cancrophagus castaneus” of Brisson 1760, “Crabier roux” of de Buffon 1770-1783, and “Chesnut Heron” of Latham 1785 (syn. Nycticorax nycticorax).

Chocolate-backed Kingfisher (lopezi)
SCI Name: Halcyon badia lopezi
lopesi / lopezi
José Lopes (fl. 1903) Portuguese taxidermist, collector for Boyd Alexander in the Cape Verdes and tropical Africa. Subsequent amendments or corrections of original spelling lopezi to lopesi, even by the original author, are considered unjustified (subsp. Accipiter toussenelii, Bradypterus, syn. Halcyon badia, Poliolais, syn. Pytilia hypogrammica, subsp. Sheppardia cyornithopsis).