GREAT AFRICAN KINGFISHER.— Cerj/ie maxiDia. 



The voice of the Belted Kingfisher is loud, dissonant, and startling, and has been 

 compared by Wilson to the sound produced by twirling a watchman's rattle. 



Mr. Thompson records two instances M'here the Belted Kingfisher has been seen and 

 shot in Ireland. One specimen was placed in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin. 



Asia presents us with a remarkably fine representative of the same genus iu the 

 handsome Spotted Kingfisher, several specimens of which bird are to be found iu the 

 British Museum. This magnificent liird, which is appropriately called by tlie natives 

 Muchee-bag, i.e. Fish-Tiger, is an inhabitant of India, where it seems to be confined to 

 the Himalayan district. 



In size it is but little inferior to the Great African Kingfisher, being one foot three 

 inches in length, and bearing a bill three inches long. The chest and sides of the neck of 

 the Fish-Tiger are of a beautiful greyish-white, whicli sKghtly deepens into a very pale 

 fawn on the abdomen and the under tail-coverts. The remainder of the Isody is covered 

 with jetty-black jDlumage, relieved by numerous spots of pure white, and the head is 

 decorated with a large and noble-looking crest, composed of elongated feathers of the 

 same lioldly contrasting hues. A few black spots form a curved line between the bill 

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