KINGFISHERS. 71 



colour of the plumage is dull green, with a slight shade of blue on the wing-coverts, 

 the outer aspect of the quills and the tail being greenish blue ; the head and nape 

 arc dark chocolate-brown ; round the hind-neck is a collar of pale ochre, and the 

 under surface of the body is of the latter colour ; while the bill and feet are dull 

 red. This species is an inhabitant of Ceylon and the greater part of the Indian 

 Peninsula, but it does not reach the north-western provinces, though extending 

 along the Lower Himalaya and the Terai country as far as Masuri and the Dun. 

 Eastwards it ranges to Assam, but is replaced to the south by the Burmese short- 

 billed kingfisher (P. bv^rmanica). Generally found along rivers, streams, and back- 

 waters, but only where tolerably shaded by trees, it sits on a branch overhanging 

 the water, and pounces on fish, crabs, and occasionally frogs. Mr. Stuart Baker 

 writes that " this kingfisher is by no means common in the Kachar district, so that 

 I have been able to make but few observations on its breeding and other habits. 

 Personally I have only taken two nests. One of these was placed in a hole about 

 2J feet deep, and so large that without much difficulty I was able to put my arm 

 into it and search for the contents. The other burrow was fully 4 feet deep, and 

 the diameter at the entrance about 3| inches. Both nests were placed in high 

 sandy banks of the Diyung River, upon which and the Jatinga the species is most 

 often met with. The first hole contained four young birds, and the second a single 

 egg. The latter seemed to be rather abnormal in shape, and was smaller at one 

 end than the other. I have never seen the bird fishing on small streams, but it 

 is by no means unusual to find it perched on trees at some distance from water, 

 and it occasionally haunts ravines and other insect-producing places, where there 

 is no water at all. Fish, I believe, form the staple article of its diet, but it varies 

 this with any living thing which is small enough. It is on record that it devours 

 lizards and similar small reptiles, and it is not averse to taking young birds from 

 their nests. Of this latter propensity I have been myself a witness. In Rungpore, 

 in the collector's compound, there stands, or stood some years ago, a large tree 

 full of crevices and holes, and much used as a nesting-place by many mynas and 

 other birds. One morning I was passing under this tree, when I was attracted by 

 the loud shrieking of a Pelargopsis, accompanied by the cries of many other birds. 

 The most vehement and excited among these last were a pair of mynas, whose 

 newly-hatched brood were in a large hollow in a big limb some forty feet from 

 the ground, and this had evidently attracted the attention of the bloodthirsty 

 kingfisher. For some time he sat on a branch close to the nest-hole, giving vent 

 every now and then to his loud cries, but taking no notice of the small birds 

 which came half-heartedly close to him, with the evident wish, but not the pluck, 

 to attack him. Finally, in spite of the frantic shrieks of the parent birds, who 

 ultimately approached quite close to the kingfisher, the latter made a dive into the 

 hollow, and when he came out of it in his powerful beak there struggled a callow 

 young myna. Seating himself comfortably on a branch, he proceeded to swallow 

 it in just the same manner as he would have done a fish ; and it may have been 

 the necessity of getting into position before he swallowed his prey which prevented 

 him from completing his meal inside the cramped hollow of the tree. At all events, 

 his action was the saving of the other young birds, for the mynas, rendered 

 furious by the disappearance of one of the youngsters down the throat of the 



