310 AFEICAN KINGHUNTEKS. [CHAP. v. 



Kingfishers reminds us of some of the foreign species, 

 called by Mr. Swaiiison Kinghunters, and by the French 

 Martin-chasseurs, which are as great lovers of dry places 

 as our own is of wet. Mr. Charles Darwin, in his 

 " Journal of the Voyage of the Beagle," says " It had 

 not now rained for an entire year in St. Jago. The broad, 

 flat-bottomed valleys, many of which serve during a few 

 days only in the season as water-courses, are clothed 

 with thickets of leafless bushes. Few living creatures 

 inhabit these valleys. The commonest bird is a King- 

 fisher (Dacelo Jagoensis), which tamely sits on the 

 branches of the Castor-oil plant, and thence darts on 

 Grasshoppers and Lizards. It is brightly coloured, but 

 not so beautiful as the European species : in its flight, 

 manners, and place of habitation, which is generally in 

 the dryest valley, there is also a wide difference."* 



The most wonderful Kingfishers yet discovered are 

 those brought to light by Mr. Gould, in his only too 

 superb and costly " Birds of Australia." He says that 

 these birds appear to be endowed with the power of sus- 

 taining and enjoying life without the least supply of 

 water, that element without which most others lan- 

 guish and die. Mr. Gould believes that water is not 

 essential to their existence, and that they seldom or 

 never drink ; and instances the Halcyons, which he found 

 sustaining life, and breeding, on the parched plains of 

 the interior during the severe drought of 1838-9, far 

 removed from any water. They feed almost exclusively 

 upon animal substances; small quadrupeds, birds, 

 snakes, lizards, and insects of every kind being 

 equally acceptable. Strange ! that among creatures so 

 closely allied, and bearing such a striking family re- 



* Page 2. 



