84 THE BIRDS OP CALCUTTA. 



in boldly enough. Obtrusive as he is in colours, he is 

 still more so in voice, and deems it necessary whenever he 

 takes wing to let the neighbourhood know he is moving by 

 uttering a loud unpleasant cackle. Occasionally, presum- 

 ably when under the influence of the tender passion, he 

 will fly erratically about uttering a wailing note; but his 

 flight is not swift at any time, and very different from the 

 arrow-like progress of his little kinsman. The two seem 

 to get on all right together, for they frequent the same 

 tank in peace no doubt because their lines of business 

 are not quite identical, as I remarked above. Although, 

 however, he is more or less of a Jack-of -all-trades for a 

 Kingfisher, the white-breasted bird has not nearly so wide 

 a range as the little one, for, though found from Cyprus 

 to China, he is essentially a bird of warm climates. His 

 versatility is shown in his nesting-habits as well as in his 

 feeding, for though he usually nests in a burrow like his 

 family generally, he has been observed in Cachar to ac- 

 tually make a rough nest of moss among rocks a most 

 anomalous habit ; for kingfishers, in addition to being bur- 

 rowers, usually despise all bedding, and allow the family 

 to pig together on a sort of mat of fish-bones which have 

 been cast up in " quids ' ' after the flesh has been digested. 

 In this larger Kingfisher, as in the other, male and female 

 have the same plumage, and the young merely a rather 

 duller one ; but the beaks and feet of the youngsters are 

 blackish instead of red. The male, when courting, makes 

 a great display of his wings, which have a fine white patch 

 on the primary quills, like the mynah's; while the wing- 

 covers are quite diagrammatically coloured, the "major" 



