110 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
fan-like crest, which is of a malachite-green colour barred with black. 
Total length, 5:2 to 6 inches; bill, 13; wing, 2°3. Sonth African 
birds are rather larger than those from Western or North-Hastern 
Africa. 
Young birds have the bill blackish, the whole of the colouring 
duller than in the adults, and may further be told by the bars of light 
cobalt on the upper surface. 
Fig. Sharpe, Monogr. Alced. pl. xi. 
105. Curyie rupis. Pied Kingfisher. 
This species is not uncommon, and is widely distributed. We 
have seen it about ‘Salt River,” near Cape Town, but in greater 
numbers about the rivers, lakes, and estuaries of the Knysna, and 
have received it from Kuruman, Colesberg, and Kaffraria. Mr. 
Chapman found it all the way to Lake N’gami. It hovers over the 
water while fishing, and plunges under the surface in pursuit of its 
prey. It breeds in holes hollowed by itself in sandy banks. We 
took a nest (Nov. 10th, 1865,) in a bank of Zoetendals Vley, which 
was placed at the extremity of a small hole, more than two yards 
deep. It was composed entirely of fish-bones and scales; and the 
eggs, six in number, were of a lovely shining white, almost similar 
in shape at each end: axis, 14’; diam., 11’’’.. At the time we 
took them, the young were nearly ready for exclusion. We also 
found them breeding in great numbers along the Berg River in 
September, and we there took thirty-nine eggs in one day. 
It must certainly be found plentifully at the Knysna, for Mr. 
Andersson’s collections contained many examples, and Victorin 
found it in the same locality from March to May, and in the months 
of July, September, and October. At Port Elizabeth it is extremely 
common, according to Mr. Rickard, but is not quite so plentiful at 
East London. Mr. Ayres states that in Natal it frequents the lakes 
and rivers near the coast, but is not found in the interior. Mr. T. 
KE, Buckley writes:—“This bird is pretty common in Natal, but 
much more so on the Limpopo, in the north of the Transvaal, where 
I found its nest in a hole of the bank, but as the ground was hard, 
I was unable to get the eggs. Its absence in the Matabili country 
is accounted for by the rivers being mostly sand-rivers in the part 
of the country I visited.’ Dr. Kirk says it is abundant on all 
rivers and lakes throughout the Zambesi region, 
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