Kingfishers and Woodpecker 185 



belong to the insect-eating, forest-loving section of the 

 family, their food consisting principally of insects, and 

 never of fish like our own Alcedo ispida. Indeed their long 

 tails would be greatly in their way if they attempted to 

 imitate a true Kingfisher and plunge into the water, as the 

 latter is accustomed to do. 



The eggs of another species, the Ruddy Kingfisher 

 {Halcyon coromandus), were sent to the British Museum by 

 Sir Hugh Low, from North-west Borneo. This bird is said 

 to place its eggs in the pendulous nest of a peculiarly 

 vicious bee, and he states that the nest can only be robbed 

 after destroying the bees. In the case of the five eggs sent 

 by him his hunters unluckily set fire to the whole nest, and 

 burnt it up. 



Woodpeckers sometimes burrow into ants' nests for 

 their nest. Mr. J. Gammie states that on four occasions 

 he has taken the eggs of the Rufous Woodpecker 

 (Micropternus phceoceps), near Darjiling, and each time 

 in an ants' nest. He writes — " One of these nests was 

 suspended from a bamboo growing in dense jungle at 

 about 2000 feet ; the other three were hanging from small 

 trees growing in the narrow strips of jungle left uncut 

 along the sides of nullahs in cultivated places. They 

 were all within six to ten feet of the ground. These ants' 

 nests, which are of a globular shape, somewhat resembling 

 the nest built by one of the European wasps ( Vespa 

 britannica, I think), are exceedingly common in Sikhim up 

 to 3500 feet, and uncommonly comfortable-looking breed- 

 ing-quarters they make. Whether the presence of the 

 Woodpecker causes the ants to desert their nest, or whether 

 the birds take possession of deserted nests only, I am at 

 present unable to say. Certainly they are most inveterate 

 enemies of this particular species of ant, and appear to feed 

 almost exclusively on it. Those I have dissected had their 

 stomachs crammed with them. The bird has a peculiar 



