INSESSORES. 139 



beneatli the surface for the fish, crustaceans, and insects 

 upon which they principally subsist. 



So much difference exists in the species of this form in- 

 habiting Australia, that I have been obliged to characterize 

 two of them as distinct from A. azurea. 



Sp. G9. ALCYONE AZUREA. 



Azure Kingfisher. 



Alcedo azurea, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. xxxil. 



tribrachys, Shaw, Nat. Misc., pi. 681. 



Tri-digitated Kingsfisher, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 105. 



Azure Kingsfisher, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. Add., p. 372. 



Ceyx azurea, Jard. and Selb. 111. Orn., vol. ii. pi. 55. fig. 1. 



Alcyone Australis, Swains. Class, of Birds, vol. ii. p. 336. 



Ceyx cyanea, Less. Traite d' Orn., p. 241. 



Alcyone azurea, G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd edit. p. 14. 



Alcyone azurea, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii. pi. 25. 



With the exception of Swan River, every colony of Australia, 

 from Port Essington on the north-west to Tasmania in the ex- 

 treme south, is inhabited by Azure Kingfishers ; but as they, 

 although closely allied, constitute at least three species, the 

 present page must necessarily treat exclusively of the one that 

 inhabits New South Wales and South Australia, over the 

 whole of which countries it is dispersed, wherever brooks, 

 ponds and other waters occur suitable to its habits and mode 

 of life. In size and in brilliancy of its plumage, the Azure 

 Kingfisher is intermediate between the species inhabiting 

 the north coast and that found in Tasmania; although 

 generically distinct from the Kingfisher of Europe {Alcedo 

 Ispida), it has many characters in common with that bird. It 

 subsists almost exclusively on small fish and aquatic insects, 

 which it captures in the water by darting down from some 

 bare branch overhanging the stream, and to which it gene- 

 rally returns to kill and devour its prey, which is swallowed 



