THE SACKED KINGFISHEE. 129 



eggs were white ; generally seen in pairs, and by no 

 means shy : their principal food appeared to be small 

 reptiles, grubs, and caterpillars. As I said before, it 

 destroys snakes. I never but once saw them at this 

 game : a pair of jackasses had disabled a carpet-snake 

 under an old gum-tree, and they sat on a dead branch 

 above it, every now and then darting down and peck- 

 ing it, and by their antics and chattering seemed to 

 consider it a capital joke. I can't say whether they ate 

 the snake, I fancy not; at least, the only reptiles I 

 ever found in their stomachs have been small lizards. 

 The first sight that struck me on landing in London 

 was a poor old laughing jackass moped up in a cage, in 

 Katcliffe Highway : I never saw a more miserable, woe- 

 begone object ; I quite pitied my poor old friend, as he 

 sat dejected on his perch ; and the thought struck me at 

 the time that we were probably neither of us benefited 

 in changing the quiet freedom of the bush for the noise 

 and bustle of the modern Babylon. 



There is a smaller species, the Sacred Kingfisher, 

 which we used to call the Van Diemen's Land jackass : 

 this is a real land kingfisher, nearly the size of a starling 

 at home ; bright blue above, light chestnut breast, which 

 is much deeper in the male than the female, and white 

 belly. This bird was sparingly dispersed over the bush, 

 always seen in pairs ; generally about the old gum-trees, 

 in moist situations, by creeks or swamps. It bred in the 

 hole of a gum-tree, and the old birds were always close 

 to the nest. It has a shrill call-note, not unlike that 



