1 840 THE PICARIAN BIRDS 



This group brings us to the second subfamily (Dacelonintz} , all the 



e " oe members of which, although by no means disdaining a fish diet and 

 Insectivor- 



ous King- ^ 1US frequenting rivers, are more exclusively inhabitants of forest and 

 fishers bush-clad country, where they subsist mainly on small reptiles, insects, 

 crustaceans, and such-like creatures. The subfamily is characterized 

 by the frequent large development of the tail; while the beak is either rounded or 

 flattened, according as the fish-eating habit is more or less predominant. Although 

 forest hunting, the members of the four genera, Ceyx, Ceycopsis, Ispidina, and Myio- 

 ceyx, are, however, characterized by having their tails as short as in the typical 

 kingfishers. The first of these genera comprises a number of brilliantly colored 

 kingfishers, of small size, inhabiting India and the countries to the east of the Bay 

 of Bengal, throughout the whole of the Malayan Archipelago as far as Northern 

 Australia. While many of them have the plumage of a brilliant red, shot with a 

 lilac gloss, and with blue on the wings and scapulars, some of the Malayan and 

 Papuan forms are mostly blue or black, with brilliant cobalt or silvery lower shades. 

 One of the most striking of the red group is the Indian three-toed kingfisher ( Ceyx 

 tridactyla) , in which the back is black with a mark of deep blue or purple, while the 

 lower back is glossed with lilac; the wing coverts being "black edged with blue; the 

 tail cinnamon rufous; the head rufous marked with lilac; the ear coverts and cheeks 

 orange yellow; the under parts also orange yellow; the bill and feet deep vermilion; 

 and the iris brown. The total length is five and one-half inches. This pretty little 

 bird inhabits the forest districts of Southern India and Ceylon, and is found from 

 Nipal eastward through the Burmese countries down the Malayan Peninsula. Mr. 

 Stuart Baker states that it is fairly common in Kachar, and is more of a fish eater 

 than the Malayan species which are forest birds, living chiefly on insects. This 

 kingfisher, indeed, lives chiefly on fish and water insects, with an occasional shrimp 

 or fresh- water prawn. Its cry is a shrill, piping note, not unlike that of the com- 

 mon kingfisher, but shriller and less powerful, and not apparently uttered except on 

 the wing. It has a very powerful flight, and is capable of great speed, darting 

 along the stream like a ruby meteor. Even when the bird is not disturbed, but is 

 merely moving from place to place, its flight is very swift. When it feeds, it re- 

 turns again and again, to the same perch, and keeps to a confined area, being found 

 day after day about the same spot, from which it seldom flies more than a mile. Mr. 

 Baker has watched the birds making their tunnel into a sandy bank, and believes 

 that the earth is pecked away by the bird's bill and the sand ejected by a backward 

 motion of its feet. 



Inhabitants of Australia and the Papuan islands, these birds are 



Kin fishers best known bv the laughing kingfisher (Dacelo gigantea), or laugh- 

 ing jackass, as it is termed by the Australian settlers, which is a 

 large bird, measuring seventeen inches in total length, with a wing of eight and 

 one-half, and a tail of six and one-half inches. The general color is brown, with 

 the lower back greenish blue; the median wing coverts being also washed with 

 greenish blue; while the head is strongly crested, brown in color with rufous freck- 

 lings on the fore part, and the long crest feathers edged with white. There is a 

 very broad white eyebrow extending backward and joining a collar on the neck; 



