344 NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE SECOND FAMILY OF THE FISSIROSTRAL PICARIAN BIEDS. 

 THE PUFF BIRDS (Biicconidcc). 



In general form the Puff Birds are not unlike Kingfishers, some of which they resemble in their 

 habits, feeding chiefly on insects, which they catch in the air. In many respects also they resemble 

 the Bee-eaters (Meropidce), and may be considered as representing the last-named family in South 

 and Central America, to which countries they are entirely confined. Of the Long-winged Puff Birds 

 (Clwlidoptera tenebrosa) the late Prince Maximilian of Neuwied gives the following account : " It is 

 not rare in most provinces of South Brazil, and very common in many of them. It is found in 

 certain spots sitting still and immovable upon the high isolated branches of the forest trees. From 

 time to time it flies after an insect in the air. and falls back again to its place like a true Fly-catcher. 

 It is a stupid, still, melancholy bird, but likes to sit high, and not low and near the ground, like other 

 Puff Birds. As in form and colour it rather resembles a Swallow, the Brazilians call it Andurinha do 

 mate (Wood Swallow). The resemblance is greatest when the bird sits upon the ground, for its feet 

 are little adapted for walking, and it consequently shuffles along as a Swallow does. Its flight is 

 light and undulating. Sitting upon a high point, -.vhence it can overlook the neighbourhood, it often 

 emits a short call-note. It is anything but timid, and veiy easy to shoot. It is usually found where 

 the woods are varied with open country, on the edges of the woods, but likewise in the interior of 

 them. The food of these birds consists of insects, of which I have found the remains in their 

 stomachs. On the Eio Grande del Belmonte I observed how these birds nest. In the month of 

 August I saw them enter a round hole in a perpendicular sand-bank on the river, like a Kingfisher's. 

 After digging about two feet in a horizontal direction, we found two milk-white eggs upon a bad 

 lining of a few feathers." * 



THE THIRD FAMILY OF THE FISSIROSTRAL PICARIAN BIRDS. 

 THE KINGFISHERS (Alcedinida}. 



The Kingfishers are a very varied family, including within their limits birds of very different 

 form and habits. The bill is always long and powerful for the size of the bird, producing, in some of 

 the smaller species, a top-heavy and ungainly aspect; but this organ is modified according to the habits 

 of the birds, and is strictly in accordance with the functions which it has to perform. The foot is 

 similar in all Kingfishers, the sole being very flat, and the toes joined together for the greater part 

 of their length, so that the birds always have a very firm support to their bodies. The legs are very 

 short and weak, the wings powerful, and the gape very wide. The Kingfishers may be divided into 

 two sub-families, distinguished by the form of the bill, which is long and compressed in the fish-eating 

 Kingfishers (Alcedinince), of which the European bird is a type, with a distinct ridge or keel along 

 the upper mandible ; while in the Dacelonince, which have a stouter and flatter bill, with a smooth 

 and rounded culmen, the food is varied, consisting more of insects than of fish. 



THE COMMON KINGFISHER (Alcedo* ispida}. 



This is, perhaps, the most brilliantly-coloured bird there is in England, but by reason of its shy 

 habits and wonderfully quick flight it is not often observed, excepting as a flash of bright blue on the river 

 side, appearing for an instant and gone the next. It is, however, by no means uncommon in many of the 

 rivers in the south of England, particularly during the month of October, when a partial migration of 

 the species evidently takes place. At this season of the year, the writer once observed a Kingfisher 

 on the ornamental water in St. James's Park. Beyond the British Islands it is found in most parts 

 of the European continent, being replaced in the East by the little Indian Kingfisher (A. bengalensis), 

 a miniature of the English bird, but with a much longer bill. The following account of the 

 habits of this bird, the result of several years' close acquaintance with the species on the river Thames, 

 is taken from the author's work on this subject J : "When in a wild state, flying along the banks of 

 a stream, or sitting patiently at watch for its finny prey, the Kingfisher is a beautiful sight. Often 

 has it been our good fortune to witness the bird at close quarters, but this is by no means easy to 



* Sslater, " Synopis of the Fissirostral Family Bucconidre, " 8vo, 1854. \ Alcedo, a Kingfisher. 



J Sharpe's " Monograph of the Alcedinidae, or Kingfishers." 



