INSESSORES. 129 



timbered plains of the interior, often in the most dry and arid 

 sitnations far distant from water ; and it would appear that, 

 as is the case with many of the insectivorous birds of Aus- 

 tralia, a supply of that element is not essential to its exist- 

 ence, since, from the localities it is often found breeding in, it 

 must necessarily pass long periods without being able to 

 obtain it. 



The gaiety of its plumage renders it a conspicuous object in 

 the bush : its loud piercing call, also, often betrays its presence, 

 particularly during the season of incubation, when the bird 

 becomes more and more clamorous as the tree in which its 

 eggs are deposited is approached by the intruder. The 

 note most frequently uttered is a loud pee-pee, continued at 

 times to a great length, resembling a cry of distress. It sits 

 very upright, generally perching on a small dead branch for 

 hours together, merely flying down to capture its prey, and 

 in most instances returning again to the site it has just 

 left. Its food is of a very mixed character, and varies 

 with the nature of the localities it inhabits. It greedily 

 devours mantes, grasshoppers, caterpillars, lizards, and very 

 small snakes, all of which are swallowed whole, the latter 

 being killed by beating their heads against a stone or other 

 hard substance, after the manner of the Common Kingfisher. 

 Specimens killed in the neighbourhood of salt-marshes had 

 their stomachs literally crammed with crabs and other crns- 

 taceous animals ; while intent on the capture of which it 

 may be observed sitting silently on the low mangrove-bushes 

 skirting the pools which every receding tide leaves either dry 

 or with a sm-face of wet mud, upon which crabs are to be 

 found in abundance. I have never seen it plunge into the 

 water after fish like the true Kingfishers, and. I believe it 

 never resorts to that mode of obtaining its prey. On the 

 banks of the Hunter its most favourite food is the larva} of a 

 species of ant, which it procures by excavating holes in the 

 nests of this insect which are constructed around the boles 



K 



