CORYTHORNIS CYANOSTIGMA. 109 
necessary food. We have captured it even in Cape Town, two 
specimens which we sent to London having actually killed themselves 
by flying against a building in the town itself. Victorin procured it 
in the Karroo in January and February, and we have seen it in Mr. 
T. C. Atmore’s collections from Hland’s Post, as well as in Major 
Bulger’s from Windvogelberg. Mr. Rickard tells us that it is common 
at Port Elizabeth, but is not quite so numerous at Hast London. 
Mr. Ayres has procured it in Natal, where he says it frequents “‘ both 
the coast and interior streams.” Captain Shelley remarks that he 
found it, during his recent trip to the the same country, “ invariably 
frequenting the small streams and ditches close to Durban, where 
however, it is not very abundant.’”’ In the Transvaal Mr. Ayres has 
found it breeding, and according to Mr. T. EH. Buckley, it frequents 
pools and streams throughout the latter country, but always singly. 
According to Dr. Kirk it was universal “on all the waters of the 
Zambesi region, sitting on the reeds or bushes which overhang them, 
and darting on its prey.” Mr. Andersson writes :—“ Probably from 
want of permanently running rivers this exquisite little species is 
not found in Damara or Great Namaqua Land, but it is common on 
all the waters north of those countries.” Mr. Monteiro says it is 
abundant at the Lagoons near Benguela, but at present Senor 
Anchieta has not forwarded it from Mossamedes. 
It breeds in banks, and lays from four to six glistening white eggs, 
‘so transparent that the yellow yoke shines plainly through the shell. 
Axis, 9’’’; diameter, 6’’ 6'”’. The nest consists of nothing but the 
bones of the delicate little fish upon which the bird habitually feeds, 
and is usually constructed, if the constantly accumulating mass of 
bones can be called a nest, at the end of a hole bored two or three 
feet into loose sandy soil, and situated in a chamber always elevated 
above the mouth of the hole; the drainage is thus perfect, the 
chamber being always dry. We found several nests along the Berg 
river in September. 
Mr. Ayres says that in Natal, “it feeds on fresh water shrimps and 
small fish, but principally the former, as well-as on beetles and insects, 
darting from a bough on to its prey.” 
The general colour of this little Kingfisher is of a rich ultramarine, 
the cheeks, ear-coverts and under surface rufous ; throat and a longi- 
tudinal patch along the sides of the neck white. It may be told, 
however, at a glance by its bright coral red bill and by its enormous 
