ALCEDININJ?. 103 



BEAVAN'S KINGFISHER. 



Length, 6'25 to 6'5 ; expanse, 9'25 to 975 ; wing 2'55 to 2'62 ; 

 tail, 1-4 to 175 ; tarsus, 0'3 to 0'35 ; bill from gape, T9 to 2'05 ; 

 bill at front, 1-4 to 1'6' 



Bill, (?, black, orange at gape ; ? , deep red, clouded with dusky. 



Chin and throat creamy-white, washed faintly with rufous ; 

 remainder of under surface and the under tail-coverts deep 

 bright rufous, paler in some than in others ; feathers of the 

 head black, with a penultimate bright blue band, those of the 

 cheeks all bright blue ; back and upper tail-coverts bright blue ; 

 wing-coverts black, washed with blue, each feather tipped with, 

 bright blue ; scapulars and rectrices black, washed with blue. 



Major Butler had a specimen in his possession that was shot in 

 the forests west of Belgaum; this is the only record I can 

 find of its occurrence within the region. 



GENUS, Ceryle. 



Bill long, straight, compressed, acute at tip ; culraen obtuse, 

 somewhat flattened, and margined on each side by an indented 

 groove ; tail slightly lengthened, rounded ; wings long, second and 

 third quills nearly equal ; inner- toe longer than the hinder one 

 which is very short. 



Ceryle rudis, Lin. 



136. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 232 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. Ill, p. 456 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers' 

 Vol. IX, p. 383 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 112 ; 

 Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 61. 



THE PIED KINGFISHER. 



Length, 11 to 11 '5 ; expanse, 18*5 to 20; wing, 5*4 to 5'8 ; 

 tail, 3 ; tarsus, 0;5 to 07; bill at front, 2'3 ; bill from gape, 31. 



Bill black ; irides dark brown ; legs and feet blackish-brown. 



Head and ears black, white-streaked, with also a white 

 supercilium ; back, rump, upper tail-coverts, and wings black, 

 white-edged ; lower parts and the sides of the neck white, 

 with a streak of black down the sides of the neck from the 

 ear-coverts ; breast with a broad interrupted band of black in 

 both sexes, and below this another complete but narrow band 

 in the male only ; wings with a white band, formed by the 

 bases of some of the quills, and the greater-coverts ; primary- 

 coverts and winglet black; tail white at the base, broadly black 

 at the end, and tipped white. 



The Pied Kingfisher is another very common species, generally 

 distributed throughout our limits. 



It is a permanent resident and breeds from February to April, 

 in holes pierced in the banks of rivers ; the eggs, four to six in 

 number, are broad oval in shape, white in color, and are highly 

 glossy. They measure 115 in length by about 0'92 in breadth. 



This Kingfisher never resorts to wells and tanks, as H. smyr- 



