KINGFISHERS. 



77 



being also washed with greenish blue ; while the head is strongly crested brown in 

 colour with rufous frecklings on the fore-part, and the long crest-feathers edged 

 with white. There is a very broad white eyebrow extending backwards and 

 joining a collar on the neck ; the tail is rufous with irregular black bars ; and 

 the under surface of the body is white with a few margins of brown on the 

 chest-feathers, more distinct on the flanks. The female is like the male, but 

 is rather more rufous on the head. Gould states that this kingfisher " frequents 

 every variety of situation the luxuriant bushes stretching along the coast, the 

 more thinly-timbered forest, the belts of trees studding the parched plains, and 

 the brushes of the higher ranges being alike favoured with its presence ; over all 

 these localities it is rather thinly distributed, being nowhere very numerous. Its 

 food, which is of a mixed character, consists exclusively of animal substances. 

 Reptiles, insects, and crabs, however, appear to be its favourite diet ; it devours 

 lizards with avidity, and it is not an unf requent sight to see it bearing off a snake 

 in its bill, to be eaten at leisure ; it also preys on small mammals. I recollect 

 shooting one of these birds in South Australia, in order to secure a line rat which 

 I saw hanging from its bill, and which proved to be a rare species." The laughing 

 kingfisher breeds during August and September, and generally selects a hole in a 

 large gum-tree for the purpose, where it deposits its beautiful pearl-white eggs 

 on the decomposed wood at the bottom. When the young are hatched, it defends 

 its breeding-place with great courage and daring, darting down upon any intruder 

 who may attempt to ascend the tree. The other species of the genus are remark- 

 able for the difference in the colour of the tail, which is blue in the male and 

 rufous in the female. Closely allied to the "jackasses " are the curious hook- 

 billed kingfishers (Melidora macrorhina), distinguished by a complete notch near 

 the end of the upper mandible, which thus ends in a hook. 



wood The most numerously represented group in the subfamily, these 



Kingfishers, birds have been called king-hunters, to distinguish them from the 

 kingfishers, inasmuch as many of the species do not fish at all. The genus contains 

 upwards of sixty species, all of which are distinguished from the laughing king- 

 fishers by their more rounded wings and more compressed bill, which has a groove 

 along the sides of the upper mandible. The best known species is, perhaps, the 

 white-breasted kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis), a bird of large size, measuring 

 nearly a foot in length with a wing of 4J inches or more. It is found all over 

 India and Burma, extending eastwards as far as China, while it also occurs in 

 Palestine and Asia Minor in the west. The bill is red, the general colour chestnut- 

 red, with the lower back bright greenish blue, the scapulars being also bright 

 greenish blue ; and the throat and breast pure white. This species generally makes 

 its nest by burrowing in a sandy bank, the length of the tunnel varying from one 

 to over three feet. Mr. Hume mentions an instance of a nest-hole being found in 

 Rajputana in a well, at least a hundred feet below the surface. In India this bird 

 is found in all kinds of situations, often far away from water. In Kachar, Mr. 

 Stuart Baker has found the nest composed of a few layers of loose moss with 

 which the bird fills up a crevice in a rock. In most instances, however, there is 

 no attempt at a nest, the eggs being deposited on the floor of the chamber at the 

 end of the tunnel. Mr. Baker says that fish form a very minor part of the bird's 



