PICAHIAN BIRDS. 87 



(B. auritus] (1113) represents a group of smaller but closely-allied 

 birds with very handsomely coloured plumage ; the most diminutive 

 members of the family are the Owlet-Nightjars such as ^E. novae- 

 hollandice (1114), which live in holes in trees during the day and 

 capture their prey on the wing like the true Nightjars, though their 

 flight is said to be less tortuous. 



Family III. ALCEDINID.E. KINGFISHERS. (Plate XVIII.) 



This large family, comprising about 160 species, is universally but [Case 55.] 

 very unequally distributed over the globe. The majority come from 

 the Malay Archipelago, from Celebes to New Guinea, and from this 

 centre they radiate in every direction. In all, the eggs are round, white 

 and glossy, and deposited in a hole in a tree or bank. The species 

 are divided into two subfamilies, the Water-Kingfishers, Alcedinince, 

 and the Wood-Kingfishers, Daceloninee. The former, characterised 

 by their long, slender, compressed bill with a distinct keel or ridge 

 along the upper mandible, are mainly fish-eating species; while the 

 latter, with a stouter, wider bill, prey on insects, Crustacea, reptiles, 

 and occasionally on birds and small mammals. 



To the subfamily Alcedinina belong the Stork-billed Kingfishers, 

 such as the Burmese species (Pelargopsis burmanica) (1115), which 

 occasionally varies its fish diet with small reptiles and young birds, 

 and the members of the genus Ceryle, distributed over the Old and 

 New Worlds, and remarkable among birds of this group on account of 

 the difference in the markings of the sexes. One of the largest is the 

 Ringed Kingfisher (C. torquata) (1116), belonging to the grey-backed 

 section of the genus, while the green-backed South American species 

 are represented by C. superciliosa (1 118), one of the smallest of all the 

 Kingfishers. The best known member of this section is the Common 

 Kingfisher (Alcedo ispida) (1120) [PI. XVIII.J, the brightest of our 

 indigenous birds and a familiar ornament of our rivers and lakes. 

 Other smaller allied forms are the Malachite-crested Kingfisher (Cory- 

 thornis cristata) (1 121), and the Little Blue Kingfisher (Alcyone pusilla) 

 (1123), which has only three toes. 



The first of the Daceloninae to be mentioned are the diminutive 

 members of the genus Ceyx (1124), which, like Alcyone, have only 

 three toes, but frequent forests rather than streams ; the equally small 

 and beautiful forms of Ispidina (1125, 1126) found in Africa; the 

 curious Saw-billed species (Syma flavirostris) (1127) from Australia; 

 and the Black-cheeked Carcineutes melanops (\ 128). The large genus 

 Halcyon, containing more than fifty species, is represented by a number 

 of very beautiful forms, of which we may specially mention the 



