120 ALCEDIKIDJE. 



black band occupying the greater part of the distal half ; lower 

 parts, with cheeks and wing-lining, white ; ^ some small elongate 

 spots forming a malar patch ; two gorgets, the upper the broader, on 

 the breast, and spots on the flanks forming an imperfect belt, black. 

 There are often black spots on the throat. 



Fig. 34— Head of C. varia, |. 



Females want the posterior black gorget and the anterior is 

 interrupted in the middle. 



Bill black ; iris brown ; legs and feet blackish ; soles pale {Legge). 



Length about 11*7; tail 3; wing 5-5; tarsus -4; bill from 

 gape 3. 



The Indian bird has usually been referred to the African and 

 Western Asiatic C. rudis; but the latter differs in having the basal 

 half of the tail-feathers more or less spotted with black, the black 

 subterminal bands marked with large white spots, and the black 

 marks on the throat and flanks less developed. The two are, how- 

 ever, only just separable. 



Distribution. Common throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma in 

 the plains, wherever there are rivers or large pieces of water, except 

 in Tenasserim south of Amherst. This Kingfisher ranges east to 

 China, but not west of Baluchistan, and does not inhabit the 

 Himalayas, even to the westward, above a very moderate elevation. 



Habits, 6,-c. The Pied Kingfisher avoids forest, but is found 

 haunting all waters in open country. It may be seen on tidal 

 streams and creeks, on backwaters and even on the sea-shore, 

 though it is more common inland on rivers, marshes, ditches, and 

 tanks. It lives entirely on fish, for which it never plunges from a 

 fixed perch, but it flies over the water, and hovers with its beak 

 pointed downwards, at a height of frequently 15 or 20 feet above 

 the surface, when it suspects the presence of a fish. It dives 

 for its prey after hovering, but not unfrequently checks itself in 

 its plunge and flies on, uttering from time to time a sharp 

 twittering cry. It breeds from the end of January till April, and 

 lays 4 to 6 white, glossy, broadly oval eggs at the end ol a hole 

 usually made in the perpendicular bank of a river. The eggs 

 measure about 1"18 by '94. 



