New Britain Dwarf-Kingfisher

SCI Name:  Ceyx sacerdotis
Protonym:  Ceyx sacerdotis J.Linn.Soc.LondonZool. 16 p.128
Taxonomy:  Coraciiformes / Alcedinidae / Ceyx
Taxonomy Code:  vardwk9
Type Locality:  Kabahadai, New Britain.
Author:  Ramsay, EP
Publish Year:  1882
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

CEYX
(Alcedinidae; Ϯ Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher C. erithaca) L. ceyx, ceycis  seabird variously identified  < Gr. κηυξ kēux, κηυκος kēukos  seabird mentioned by Dionysius and Lucian, and considered identical to the halcyon. In Gr. myth. Ceyx, blasphemous husband to Alcyone, was drowned at sea and metamorphosed into a kingfisher along with his desolated wife when she found his body washed up on the shore; "62. CÉYX.  Ceyx.  { Le bec très-long; la langue courte; le tarse très-court; chaque pied ne présentant que trois doigts." (de Lacépède 1799); "Ceyx Lacépède, Tabl. Ois., 1799, p. 10. Type, by monotypy, Alcedo tridactyla Pallas = Alcedo erithaca Linné (species added, Daudin, in Buffon, Hist. Nat. (éd Didot), 14, 1802, p. 287.)" (Peters, 1945, V, p. 178).
Var. Ceix, Ceux, Ceycis.
Synon. Alcyon, Argyroceyx, Ceycalcyon, Ceycopsis, Cyanoceyx, Micralcyone, Therosa.

sacerdos / sacerdotis
L. sacerdos, sacerdotis  priest  < sacer, sacra  holy.
● Revd. George Brown (1835-1917) Scottish missionary to Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Is., Bismarck Archipelago and New Guinea (Ceyx).
● Revd. Fr. Erwin Schmutz (b. 1932) German missionary, naturalist, botanist, collector on Flores, Indonesia (subsp. Circaetus gallicus).
● TL. Phum Sambor, Cambodia (an ancient religious site, famed for its ruined Hindu temples and sanctuaries) (subsp. Pericrocotus cinnamomeus).