KINGFISHERS — HORNBIII — WO ODPE CKERS 1 8 9 



{Nyctiomis amictus), of the Malay Peninsula and Isles, a species somewhat larger 

 than the European bee-eater. The plumage of this bird is green with a pale 

 violet band across the forehead and crown, and a scarlet throat. 



Although the group of pied kingfishers is represented in India 



their true home is tropical America (where, however, they lack the 

 pied type of coloration), while they are also found in Africa and Europe. These 

 birds fly better than the other kingfishers, and wander over a large tract in 

 pursuit of their prey, hawking above the surface of the water and seizing their 

 victims with a jerk. The Oriental species, Ceryle varia, inhabits India and the 

 Malay Peninsula. The wood-kingfishers, which live in forest, or in fields and 

 plantations, and feed, according to their size, on insects or small vertebrates, 

 especially snakes, generally sit crouching in a lazy, dreamy attitude, with their beaks 

 on their breasts, yet keeping a keen watch on their surroundings, and ready at any 

 moment to dash down on their prey. They nest in holes in trees, and are dis- 

 tinguished from their kindred by seizing their prey on the surface, instead of 

 diving for it in the water. They are inhabitants of Africa as well as of .tropical 

 Asia, the range of the brown Oriental Halcyon fuscus extending from Asia Minor 

 to the Philippines. Representing another genus, the Indian three-toed insectivorous 

 kingfisher (Ceyx tridactyla), which ranges from India through Burma to the 

 Malay Peninsula, is one of the most richly coloured members of the whole 

 group. 



If only on account of its habit (shared by the rest of its kind) of 



walling up the female in a hole in a tree during the period of incuba- 

 tion, mention must be made of the great pied hornbill (Diceros bicornis), the 

 largest representative of its kind, whose habitat extends from the forests of the 

 Himalaya to southern India and Sumatra. 



Another noteworthy bird is the sultan woodpecker (Chryso- 

 Woodpeckers. J . £_ J 



coiaptes sultaneus), a species about the size or the European green 

 woodpecker, with the mantle and wings golden yellow, the crown and lower part 

 of the back scarlet, the tail black, the lower-parts white and black, and the neck 

 marked by white and black stripes. The haunts of this bird are amid forests and 

 plantations, and in Burma frequently on the banks of rivers. Its near allies, 

 the stump-woodpeckers, have a similar type of plumage, but differ somewhat in the 

 structure of the feet. One of the commonest of this rather large group is the tiger- 

 woodpecker (Chrysonotus javanensis), whose range extends from the Malay 

 Peninsula to Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. The piculets differ from the more typical 

 woodpeckers by their diminutive size and short beak and tail, as well as by the 

 circumstance that the feathers of the latter are soft and rounded at the tips instead 

 of hard and pointed. The rufous piculets, specially characterised by having only 

 three toes, are represented by three Asiatic species, among which the ochre-coloured 

 Sasia ochracea ranges from Nepal and the eastern Himalaya over the greater part 

 of the Malay countries. It is generally met with in bamboo-jungle, where it may 

 often be heard hammering vigorously at the stems in which it nests. The four- 

 toed piculets, on the other hand, are chiefly an American group, although repre- 

 sented in south-eastern Asia by the Oriental Picumnus innominatus, whose 

 habitat extends from the Himalaya to Sumatra. 



