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ItlRDS I'EKCHING BIRDS DIAGRAM 4. 



Foot of Kingfisher. 



ORDER OP PERCHING BIRDS, OR PASSERINE 



BIRDS. 



The Kingfishers have a straight beak like the woodpeckers, and 

 three toes in front, two of which are partly 

 united. Their food consists of aquatic 

 animals. They are also brilliantly coloured. 

 Their patience is extraordinary, and they are 

 often seen sitting motionless on branches or 

 stones at the edge pf the water, watching for what may pass, 

 and darting like an arrow on the prey which they perceive. 

 Sometimes, too, they fish flying, and then, pouncing into the water 

 they rise again immediately with the animal which they pursued 

 in their beak. They make their nest in the holes of the banks, 

 only consolidating the sides. They lay from four to eight eggs 

 which are generally white. The male and female sit on the eggs 

 alternately, and share the labour of feeding the young by bringing 

 them the results of their fishing. 



The Goat-suckers are remarkable for the enormous size of their 

 beak when open, though the horny part of the beak is small. 

 Their plumage is dull-coloured. Many absurd stories have been 

 told of these birds. It was believed, for instance, that they 

 come to suck goats, whereas they only come to search in the 

 hair and wool of sheep and goats for the insects that are found 

 there, and of which they relieve them. As they live on no other 



food than mosquitoes, 

 gnats, and all kinds of 

 twilight-flying insects, 

 the goat-suckers are 

 really very useful birds 

 which ought on no ac- 

 count to be destroyed. 

 They do not pass the 

 Head of Goat-sucker. winter with us ; they 



