384 CORACIIFORMES CHAP. 
likened to “ tit-it-it,’ or is loud and harsh; it is most frequently 
heard as the birds skim over the streams in the anxious time of 
breeding, while the young have similar cries, and are very noisy 
just before leaving the nest, which they render extremely foul. 
The eggs are laid in holes in perpendicular river-banks, disused 
gravel-pits and the lke, or even in cavities in walls or rotten 
stumps, the circular tunnel usually penetrating to a depth of 
two or three feet, and forming an enlarged terminal chamber. 
The number of eggs varies from four to ten in different species ; 
they are round, white, glossy, and thin-shelled, and look very 
pink when they are fresh; they usually lie on a bed of fish-bones, 
consisting chiefly of vertebrae, not uncommonly deposited before 
laying begins. Ceryle rudis is stated to make a nest of grass, 
C. amazona one of sticks and straw, the former at times breeding 
in colonies. The male has been known to assist in incubation, 
which lasts a fortnight or more; while two broods are occa- 
sionally reared in the season, especially in warmer climates. 
The Wood-Kingfishers prefer shady forest-regions, not necessarily 
near water, but also frequent the vicinity of houses; their food 
consists of imsects caught in the air, caterpillars, reptiles, frogs, 
crustaceans, worms and molluscs, though they occasionally eat 
fish. The nests, placed in holes in trees or banks, are said in 
some cases to be of a few straws, dry leaves, or moss. The genus 
Dacelo and its allies, including the largest forms of the Family, 
are natives of Australia and New Guinea, where they often 
inhabit very dry situations. They will even eat small mammals 
or birds, bruising them before deglutition, and lay two or three 
white eggs in holes in trees without any nest. The note is an 
extraordinary loud gurgling or barking sound, from which they 
are called ‘ ‘Laughing Ja ie 
Kingfishers are difficult. to keep in captivity, mile hard frosts 
cause much mortality, though the use of the feathers for artificial 
flies or for ornament adds to the scarcity. The males are at times 
very pugnacious. Many fables are connected with the Family; 
for instance, Ceyx and Alcyone were said to have been changed 
by Zeus into Kingfishers, while Aeolus, father of Alcyone, kept 
the weather calm in midwinter (the fourteen haleyon days), 
when the birds formed a floating nest upon the deep. <A dried 
specimen, if hung up, was supposed to act as a weathercock with 
its bill, as Shakespeare intimates. 
