CHAP, v.] AUSTRALIAN KINGFISHERS. 311 



semblance as the Kingfishers do to each other, one 

 species, our own, should be almost bound to the vicinity 

 of brooks and streams ; whilst others, equally occupying 

 their allotted place in Creation, and fulfilling the office 

 assigned to them by Providence, should be able, in order 

 to perform that task, to dispense with what is usually 

 considered the necessary element of water, except just 

 the few thimblefulls of liquid contained in their living 

 prey, that are absolutely requisite to keep their animal 

 fluids circulating. The creature that can live through 

 these fierce Australian droughts, respecting which see 

 the late "Volumes of Ad venture, "passim, is not far from 

 being the feathered representative of the fabled sala- 

 mander, and would not have found itself very uncom- 

 fortable had it joined M. Chabert in his little retire- 

 ments into a heated oven. The act of perspiring must 

 be a function as good as unknown to it. Who, after 

 this example, can pronounce that the moon is unin- 

 habited, even though it have neither seas nor atmo- 

 sphere ? 



Two of these birds rejoice in the title of " Laughing 

 Jackass." The smaller, Dacelo cervina (Gould), inha- 

 bits the north-western parts of Australia. It speaks a 

 different language, and its noise is by no means so ridi- 

 culous as that of Dacelo gigantea, the Jackass par excel- 

 lence, which inhabits exactly the opposite region, namely, 

 the south-eastern portion of the Australian continent. 

 Captain Sturt, while tracking the course of the Morum- 

 bidgee and Murray Rivers, mentions that the cry of this 

 Kingfisher, " which resembles a chorus of wild spirits, 

 is apt to startle the traveller who may be in jeopardy, 

 as if laughing and mocking at his misfortunes. It is 

 a harmless bird, and I seldom allowed them to be de- 



