Rev. II. B.Tristram on the Ornithuloyy of Palestine. 87 



identity, and the mistake in Jerdon's * Birds of India ' has been 

 corrected in the list of errata to his first volume. 



Although with a very wide range, this Kingfisher is strictly 

 Asiatic, being only a doubtful straggler to Europe, and never 

 reported from Africa. Its habits in the Holy Land show it to 

 be much more strictly tropical than the last species. We never 

 found it beyond the limits of the Jordan valley ; but Russell's 

 mention of it, as well as its existence in Asia Minor, show that 

 it is not exclusively tropical in its habitat. Unlike the other 

 peculiar species of the Ghor, it occurs throughout the whole 

 course of the river, and we met with it close to Banias, on the 

 upper waters of the Jordan . It is in all its habits very different 

 from the lively Pied Kingfisher. It never hovers, never is seen 

 iu the open ground, but loves to sit moodily for hours on a 

 slender bough overhanging a swamp or pool, where the foliage 

 helps to conceal its brilliant plumage, and where, with cast-down 

 eyes and bill leaning on its breast, its seems benumbed or sleepy, 

 until the motions of some lizard or frog in the marsh beneath 

 rouse it to temporary activity. When disturbed, it rather slinks 

 away under the cover of the overhanging oleanders than trusts 

 for safety to direct flight. Nor does it confine itself to ponds or 

 marshes; but frequently it will perch on a bush in a barley-field 

 watching for lizards or snakes, and always bringing its prey back 

 to its perch to devour at its leisure. It will swallow entire very 

 large reptiles. In one I found a snake eighteen inches long, entire; 

 but I never found in its crop any fish, though it bad frequently fed 

 on locusts — most generally, however, on reptiles, whether frogs, 

 toads, lizards, or serpents. It is not gregarious, and we seldom 

 saw more than two together. It is both sedentary and sluggish 

 in its habits, though very wary. 



The first specimens we obtained were at Jericho, in Januai-y, 

 where it resorted to the jujube-trees overhanging the stream from 

 Ain Sultan (Elisha's fountain). Afterwards we met with it all 

 round the coast of the Dead Sea, by the banks of Jordan in 

 thickets, in the swamps of Huleh (Merom), by the upper Jor- 

 dan, but especially on the plain of Gennesaret, where, on April 

 28th, Mr. Bartlett took a nest of five eggs, fresh, in a hole in a 

 bank about six feet high, facing, not a sticam, but the lake itself. 



