204 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Sei>t. 1, 1SG8. 



THE COMMON KINGFISHER. 



[Alcedo ispida.) 



rpHE Kingfishers form one of the most natural 

 -^- and beautiful families of birds, and from their 

 varied character are most interesting to study. 



In a truly natural family like the Kingfishers, 

 where the beak is the principal agent in procuring 

 food, it would be expected that a modification of 

 that organ would be accompanied by a corresponding 

 modification of habits. Such is the case, and the 

 modifications of the form of bill can be traced from 



The numerous excellent essays which have ap- 

 peared from time to time on the English King- 

 fisher leave little new to be added. To the 

 scientific ornithologist the short but interesting 

 paper by the Baron R. Konig-Warthausen * will be 

 found of service, while among the works of British 

 ornithologists no more interesting memoirs can be 

 met with than those of the celebrated Mr. Charles 

 Watertonf and Mr. Stevenson.J I have few re- 

 marks to add to the excellent histories of the King- 

 fisher given by these gentlemen, but I find I am 

 able to confirm some of their observations from a 



The Common Kingfisher. 



the highly-compressed bill of Ceryle or Alcedo, 

 through the different genera of the Halcyonime, to 

 the short, depressed bill of the lizard-eating Dacclo- 

 irince, the extreme development being reached in 

 Melidora, where the bill is notched and hooked. 

 So gradual, indeed, are these modifications that it 

 is by no means easy to define clearly the limits of 

 the several sub-families, the habits being, I think, 

 the best guide to a definite arrangement. 



The genus Alcedo, of which our English King- 

 fisher is the type, is widely distributed, being re- 

 presented in the Palsearctie, ./Ethiopian, Indian, and 

 Australian regions, the only species in the latter 

 being Alcedo moluccensis, which is found in Celebes, 

 and in some of the other islands of the Austro- 

 M a lay an sub-region. 



personal study of the bird's habits. I have before 

 referred to the obligations I owe to Mr. Briggs, of 

 Formosa. He tells me that from his cottage win- 

 dow he has seen Kingfishers perch on the boughs 

 overhanging a small pond immediately opposite, 

 and has watched them with interest. He has 

 sometimes seen them dive five or six times in suc- 

 cession without bringing up a fish, and I myself 

 was once witness of one dashing backwards and 

 forwards without intermission into the water of a 

 small brook. In writing on this occurrence else- 

 where I suggested that these frequent divings of the 



* Naumannia, 1854, ]). 160. 



t Essays on Natural History, First Series, p. 166 (1844\ 



% Birds of Norfolk, i. p. 314 (1867). 



