THE KINGFISHERS. 



63 



eating Kingfishers, there are several which have a short tail 

 like the true AlcediiiificB^ and yet live in forests and never feed 

 on fish. 



The palate is bridged, or desmognathous ; there are no 

 basipterygoid processes ; the hallux, or first hind-toe, is con- 

 nected with the flexor perforans digitoriun, and the sole of 



Ventral aspect of the bill of the Giant Kingfisher {Dacelo gigas), to show 

 the desmognathous palate. [From the Catalogue of Osteological Specimens 

 in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.] Letters as before. 



the foot is flat, the front toes being uiited together for the 

 greater part of their extent — hence the birds are Anisodactyle. 



The eggs are white and hidden from sight, as with other 

 Picarian Birds, being mostly deposited in the hole of a bank or 

 tree. The young are hatched naked, but the feathers are 

 developed in well-marked lines or " tracts," and are for a long 

 time enclosed in the sheath, imparting a singularly bristly 

 appearance to the nestUng (see p. 34). 



Of the Insect-eating Kingfishers, of which we have no re- 

 presentatives in the northern parts of the world, the nearest 

 allies to our own Kingfisher are the African genus Ispidina, 

 and the Indian and Moluccan genus Ceyx, the latter having only 

 three toes. The large genus Halcyon^ consisting of bush- and 

 forest-frequenting birds, is widely spread over Africa, India, 



