HALCYONINiE. 225 



tertiaries dull greenish-blue ; back, rump, and upper tail-coverts, 

 bright caerulean blue ; wings, with the lesser coverts, chesnut, 

 median coverts black, and the greater coverts and winglet, dull 

 blue ; quills blue, with a broad, black tip, diminishing to the last 

 primary, and the inner webs of all dusky black, with a broad 

 oblique white bar on the inner webs of the primaries, extending 

 over nearly the whole feather in the last primary, small in extent 

 on the first ; chin, throat, middle of the neck, breast, and abdomen, 

 pure white ; tail blue, the centre feathers slightly tinged with 

 greenish. 



Bill rich coral-red; feet vermilion-red; eyes brown. 



Length 10^ inches ; w^ing 4^ to 4| ; tail 3, exceeding the wings 

 by about 1-^ inch; bill at front 2^. 



This well-known Kingfisher is very abundant in most parts of 

 India, and is found throughout the whole peninsula and Ceylon, up 

 to the base of the Himalayas, and extending through all the coun- 

 tries to the east, as far as China.* 



It prefers a wooded country, but is not found in thick forests ; 

 and is to be met with about most large villages and cantonments. 

 It frequents banks of rivers and brooks, edges of tanks, as also the 

 neighbourhood of wellsand wet paddy-fields ; but it is as frequently 

 found away from water, in groves of trees, gardens, open jungle, 

 and dry cultivation ; perching upon trees, poles, walls, oldbuildings, 

 and any similar situation. Here it watches for a land-crab, mouse, 

 lizard, grasshopper, or other insect ; and pounces down on it, re- 

 turning to its perch to devour it. Near water it catches fish (for 

 which it sometimes though rarely dives), frogs, tadpoles, and water- 

 insects. Layard states that he has seen it seizing butterflies. It has 

 a loud, harsh, rattling scream, which it almost always utters when 

 flying. It is stated to build its nest sometimes under a projecting 

 stone on the bank of a nullah ; sometimes in a hole in a bank ; at 

 other times in holes in decaying trees; and to lay from 2 to 7 

 round fleshy-white eggs. 



* A very nearly allied species is H. gularis, Kuhl, alhogularis, Blyth, from the 

 Philippines. 



2 F 



