New Ireland Dwarf-Kingfisher

SCI Name:  Ceyx mulcatus
Protonym:  Ceyx solitaria mulcata Bull.Br.Orn.Club 35 p.24
Taxonomy:  Coraciiformes / Alcedinidae / Ceyx
Taxonomy Code:  vardwk8
Type Locality:  New Hanover.
Author:  Rothschild & Hartert
Publish Year:  1914
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.

mulcata / mulcatus
L. mulcatus  damaged, injured  < mulcare  to maltreat; "In 1901 (Nov. Zool. viii. p. 145) we called attention to the large size of a specimen of Ceyx solitaria from New Hanover, but considered that it would be unwise to bestow a name on this apparently larger subspecies on the evidence of a single example. We have now found two more specimens in a bottle of spirits, which confirm our former supposition.  ... We propose to name the New Hanover Kingfisher Ceyx solitaria mulcata, subsp, n." (Rothschild & Hartert 1914) (Ceyx).