BIRDS. 543 



ing the river, watching the shoals of little fishes below, and every now and 

 then making a headlong plunge into the water, and almost instantly emerg- 

 ing with a fish in its beak. All of the typical kingfishers do not feed on 

 fish. Wallace instances one in the island of Lombock, which belies its 

 name. It does not frequent the water, does not live on fish, but seeks its 

 dinner of insects, centipedes, and molluscs in the dense, damp thickets of 

 that tropical isle. 



Of the less typical kingfishers we merely mention the racket-tailed king- 

 fishers of the Malay Archipelago, with the tail-feathers much like those of 

 the motmots ; and then proceed to give a quotation from the pages of 

 Mr. Wheelwright, concerning the ' laughing jackass ' of Australia : — 



" About an hour before sunrise the bushman is awakened by the most 

 discordant sounds, as if a troop of fiends were shouting, whooping, and 

 laughing around him in one wild chorus. This is the morning song of the 

 laughing jackass, warning its feathered mates that daybreak is at hand. 

 At noon the same wild laugh is heard ; and, as the sun sinks into the 

 west, it rings again through the forest. I shall never forget the first night 

 I slept in the open bush in this country. It was in the Black Forest. I 

 awoke about daybreak, after a confused sleep, and for some minutes I could 

 not remember where I was, such were the extraordinary sounds that 

 greeted my ears ; the fiendish laugh of the jackass, the clear, flute-like 

 notes of the magpie, the hoarse cacks of the wattle-birds, the jargon of 

 flocks of leather-heads, and the screaming of thousands of parrots as they 

 dashed through the forests, all joining chorus, formed one of the most 

 extraordinary concerts I have ever heard, and seemed at the moment 

 to have been gotten up for the purpose of welcoming the stranger to 

 this land of wonders on that eventful morning. I have heard it hun- 

 dreds of times since, but never with the same feelings that I listened to it 

 ■ then. The laughing jackass is the bushman's clock, and, being by no 

 means shy, of a companionable nature, a constant attendant about the 

 bush-tent, and a destroyer of snakes, is regarded, like the robin at home, 

 as a sacred bird in the Australian forests. It is an uncouth-looking bird, 

 a huge species of land-kingfisher, nearly the size of a crow, of a rich 

 chestnut-brown and dirty white color ; the wings slightly checkered with 

 light blue, after the manner of the British jay ; tail-feathers long, rather 

 pointed, and barred with brown. It has the foot of the kingfisher, a 

 very formidable, long, pointed beak, and a large mouth. It has also a kind 

 of crest which it erects when angry or frightened ; and this gives it a very 

 ferocious appearance." 



Strange birds are the hornbills, one of which is figured here. They 

 get their name, as one may readily see, from the immense bill which bear:; 



