THE KINGFISHERS. 53 



Our little kingfisher probably eats little else than fish. 

 But his relatives are not so purely piscine in diet. Some 

 indulge in crabs, some in frogs, some almost entirely in 

 insect food, whilst occasionally one kind at least has been 

 proved guilty of rank rapacity comparable with that of the 

 birds of prey. It has been seen to visit the nest of a myna 

 and to gobble up at least one of the nestlings! Martin f>cclieur 

 therefore has reason to blush for some of his kind. 



The kingfishers vary even to the extent of having a 

 different number of toes, the Australian Alcyones having but 

 three all told. These pedal arrangements may be classed 

 thus: those with two toes in front and one behind: and the 

 others, some with two in front and two behind as in the 

 climbers, others with the more common arragement, three in 

 front and one behind. Of the Australian kinds that best 

 known by repute in other portions of the world is the laugh- 

 ing jackass. He is a bird of something like a foot and a 

 half in total length, with a wing of over eight, and a tail of 

 over six inches. He has much of the greenish blue of his 

 kind, but is otherwise coloured more largely with brow'n. 



Mention has been made in another place of the nesting 

 habit of the common kingfisher, but it should be remem- 

 bered that the family in this respect is by no means accus- 

 tomed on all occasions to nest near water. Indeed the home 

 is not infrequently found at a considerable distance from 

 either stream or pond. It is, however, always in a burrow, 

 and seems to be always placed on a platform of fish-bones. 



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