THE KINGFISHERS 1843 



groove along the sides of the upper mandible. The best-known species is, perhaps, 

 the white-breasted kingfisher {Halcyon smyrnensis), a bird of large size, measuring 

 nearly a foot in length, with a wing of four and one-half inches or more. It is 

 found all over India and Burma, extending eastward as far as China, while it also 

 occurs in Palestine and Asia Minor in the west. The bill is red, the general color 

 chestnut red, with the lower back bright greenish blue, the scapulars being also 

 bright greenish blue; and the throat and breast pure white. This species generally 

 makes its nest by burrowing in a sandy bank, the length of the tunnel varying 

 from one to over three feet. Mr. Hume mentions an instance of a nest hole being 

 found in Rajputana in a well, at least a hundred feet below the surface. In India 

 this bird is found in all kinds of situations, often far away from water. In Kachar, 

 Mr. Stuart Baker has found the nest composed of a few layers of loose moss with 

 which the bird fills up a crevice in a rock. In most instances, however, there is no 

 attempt at a nest, the eggs being deposited on the floor of the chamber at the end 

 of the tunnel. Mr. Baker says that fish form a very minor part of the bird's diet, 

 the principal part of which consists of locusts and crickets; and these it takes by 

 swooping down on them from some perch, as if diving after fish, and seizing them 

 from the bushes and grass, without halting in its flight. It also captures prawns, 

 small crabs, and water insects from stagnant pools, and he has once or twice seen it 

 take cicalas from the trunk of a tree. These kingfishers are very plentiful in 

 Africa, one of the most beautiful species being the African white-breasted kingfisher 

 (H. semicceruled) , which has an entirely red bill, and is easily distinguished by its 

 ashy-white head and chestnut breast and under wing coverts; the back being black, 

 with the lower part bright blue, while the outer surfaces of the wings and tail are blue; 

 and the throat and chest ashy white like the head. The length of the bird is about 

 eight inches, and the wing four inches. This species is found over the greater part 

 of Africa, as far as the Zanzibar district on the east, and to Angola on the west, 

 being replaced in Southern Africa by an allied species (If. pallidiventris} , and by H. 

 erythrogaster in the Cape Verde islands. Von Hueglin states that in Northeastern 

 Africa he found the present species both near water and in the wooded districts. It 

 feeds on beetles and other insects, but also catches fish, which it seems to prefer. 



In the genus Tanysiptera the number of tail feathers is reduced to 

 "K" ^"h ten ' ^ w k* c k t* 16 cen tral ones are greatly elongated, and exceed the 

 body in length, generally ending in a racket-like expansion. Twenty 

 species are known, all of which are inhabitants only of the Moluccas, the Papuan 

 islands, and the Cape York Peninsula in Northern Australia. Mr. Wallace, who 

 discovered several of the species during his travels in the Malay Archipelago, tells us 

 that he found them in forests and also in rocks by the side of streams. Macgillivray, 

 who found the beautifiil Tanysiptera sylvia in Northeastern Australia, states that it 

 frequented the dense bushes and the sunny glades in the woods. The flight is rapid, 

 and it darts away among the dense foliage like an arrow. It is very wary, and sits 

 on the bare branch of a tree, keeping a good lookout, and darting on to some pass- 

 ing insect, and then returning to the same perch. Its cry resembles the words wheet, 

 wheel, wheel, and it is said to tunnel into the ant hills of red clay, which are com- 

 mon in that part of Australia. 



