HALCYON. 131 



Wanting in Kajputana, Sind, and the Punjab, and very rare in 

 the open tracts of the North-west Provinces and Central India, 

 on the Deccan tableland, and in the Carnatic ; but occurring in 

 Guzerat and throughout the Malabar coast and in Ceylon, in the 

 wooded country between the Godavari and Bengal, near the base 

 of the Himalayas as far west as Dehra Dun, and, still more 

 commonly, in Bengal, Assam, Burma, and the Andaman Islands. 

 This Kingfisher ranges into the northern part of the Malay 

 Peninsula, and to Siam, Cambodia, and Cochin China. Farther 

 south in the Malay Peninsula it is represented by another race, 

 P. fraseri. 



Habits, fyc. Unlike the last two, this is chiefly a freshwater 

 Kingfisher, though it may occasionally be seen on tidal streams. 

 It is more often found on well- wooded rivers, large marshes, or 

 tanks, perched on a branch overhanging the water, and plunging 

 occasionally for fish. It also feeds on frogs, crabs, and it is said 

 mollusca. According to Davison, it sometimes eats lizards. It has 

 a loud peculiar cry several times repeated, generally uttered during 

 flight. It breeds from April to June in Northern India, earlier in 

 the South, generally in a hole in the bank of a stream ; but 

 Mr. Cripps in Assam found a nest in a dead and rotten tree, and 

 Major Bingham in Tenasserim obtained the eggs from a nest of 

 grass-roots in the fork of a bamboo, and saw the parent bird 

 distinctly. The eggs, 3 to 5 in number, are of the usual Kingfisher 

 type, and measure about 1*17 by 1'05. 



Genus HALCYON, Svvainson, 1820. 



There is much difference of opinion as to the limits of the 

 present genus. In the British Museum Catalogue it comprises 

 the forms here referred to Callialcyon, Sauropatis, and Caridagrus, 

 and contains 53 species, whilst by many writers it is restricted to 

 the type H. sencgalensis and its allies. I do not see any necessity 

 for generically distinguishing H. smyrnensis and H. pileata from 

 //. senegalensis ; but the differences between Halcyon and Sauro- 

 patis, for instance, appear to me quite as great as those usually 

 regarded as of generic importance in the present work. 



In Halcyon the bill is red throughout, large, rather broad at the 

 base, the culmen straight, rounded above and without any 

 distinct groove at the side. The wing is rounded, the 3rd quill 

 generally longest. Tail moderate, longer than culmen, slightly 

 rounded at the end. One of the characteristic features in the 

 plumage is the presence of a large white patch on the wing 

 formed by the basal portions of the primary quills. 



Key to the Species. 



Head and neck above chestnut ; no white collar. H. smyrnensis, p. 132. 



Crown black ; a white collar H. pileata, p. 133. 



K2 



