669 



ALCEDO. KINGFISHER. 



The genus Alcedo is composed of species generally remarkable 

 for the brilliancy of their plumage, and which are for the most 

 part natives of the warmer regions of the globe. They are of 

 a short and rather robust habit, with the neck short, the head 

 large and oblong, the wings broad and rather short, the tail 

 abbreviated, and the feet very small. 



The bill is straight, longer than the head, pentagonal at the 

 base, then four-sided, compressed, and tapering to a point. 

 Upper mandible with the dorsal outline declinate and almost 

 straight, the ridge narrow, carinate, slightly flattened, the sides 

 sloping, the edges direct, sharp, and overlapping, the tip acute 

 and destitute of notch ; lower mandible with the angle short 

 and rather acute, the dorsal outline ascending and slightly con- 

 vex, the ridge narrow, the sides sloping outwards and nearly 

 flat, the edges sharp, the tip acute. The gape-line straight, at 

 the base a little declinate, and extending to beneath the middle 

 of the eye. The upper mandible concave, with a slightly pro- 

 minent middle line ; the lower more deeply concave, with a more 

 prominent line ; the palate flattened. The tongue, Plate XXII, 

 Fig. 7, a, very small, fleshy, flattened, broad, with a suddenly 

 contracted tip. The oesophagus, bed, very wide, without crop ; 

 the stomach, d ef, large, with a very thin muscular coat, and 

 a soft rugous epithelium ; intestine, y_^/i k, of moderate length, 

 very slender ; no cfieca ; cloaca, j k, very large and globular. 



Nostrils linear, direct, in the lower and fore part of the short 

 nasal membrane, which is covered with short feathers of ordi- 

 nary texture, and directed backwards. Eyes of moderate size ; 

 eyelids feathered near the edges, which are crenate. External 

 aperture of ear rather small, and roundish. 



The feet remarkably small and feeble ; the tibia bare above 

 the joint ; the tarsus extremely short, roundish, or transversely 



