Laughing kookaburra there. He probably obtained a preserved specimen from one of the naturalists who accompanied Captain James Cook to the east coast of Australia. Edme-Louis Daubenton and François-Nicolas Martinet included a coloured plate of the laughing kookaburra based on Sonnerat's specimen in their "Planches enluminées d'histoire naturelle". The plate has the legend in French ""Martin-pecheur, de la Nouvelle Guinée"" (Kingfisher from New Guinea). In 1783, the French naturalist Johann Hermann provided a formal description of the species based the coloured plate by Daubenton and Martinet. He gave it the scientific name "Alcedo novæ Guineæ". The current genus "Dacelo" was introduced in
Blue-winged kookaburra officially described by Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Thomas Horsfield in 1826, its specific name commemorating the British zoologist William Elford Leach. It is one of four members of the genus "Dacelo" which are commonly known as kookaburras. Alternative common names include barking or howling jackass, or Leach's kookaburra. The number of subspecies is unclear - with four recognised by most authorities, although others have proposed the three Australian subspecies gradually change across Australia and should be treated as one. The adult blue-winged kookaburra measures around in length and weighs 260 to 330 g. Compared to the related laughing kookaburra, it