KINGFISHERS. 



69 



morning and evening, but occasionally also during the day. It never seems to 

 descend to the ground, and it feeds on fruit." 



The Kingfishers. 



Family Alcedinidje. 



It is scarcely possible to name a country in the world where kingfishers of 

 some sort or another are not found. Although they vary greatly in form and 



THE KINGFISHER (f liat. size 



habits, as a rule they have a long and somewhat pointed bill ; but the shape of this 

 organ varies considerably in form, according as the bird is a fish-catcher or a 

 devourer of reptiles and other food than fish. The structure of the foot, however, 

 scarcely changes throughout the group, for every kingfisher is flat-soled and has 

 an anisodactyle foot, with the toes for the most part united together, so that the 

 foot of these birds is by no means unlike that of a hornbill, to which group some 

 of the larger kingfishers make an approach in general appearance. Unlike so 

 many of the Picarian birds, most kingfishers have twelve tail-feathers instead of 

 ten, though a few possess the ordinary Picarian number. As in the hornbills and 



