Kingfishers 489 



tenths inches long, the entire upper surface is bright grass-green, the wings 

 blackish, the chin white, and the throat crimson, passing below into white 

 washed with yellow, while the sides of the breast are green and the flanks orna- 

 mented by a tuft of pink feathers. Finally, mention may be made of a peculiar 

 whirring noise made by the birds in flight, produced, it is said, by the attenuate 

 outer primary. 



THE KINGFISHERS 



(Family Alcedinid<z) 



The Kingfishers, of which there are fully two hundred species and sub- 

 species now recognized, form a compact and exceedingly interesting group of 

 practically cosmopolitan birds, which Dr. Sharpe well says " are alike remark- 

 able for their brilliant coloration and for the variety of curious and aberrant 

 forms included among their number." While there is not a little diversity in 

 their appearance, in general, Kingfishers are small or medium-sized birds with 

 compact bodies, very short and weak legs and usually short, rounded, but power- 

 ful wings. The head often seems disproportionately large, due mainly to the rela- 

 tively very long, stout bill, and the more or less pronounced head-crest. The 

 wings contain eleven primaries and from eleven to fourteen secondaries, while 

 the commonly very short tail contains twelve feathers, though there is a group of 

 some twenty Old World species in which the number of tail-feathers is reduced 

 to ten, of which the central ones are greatly elongated often exceeding the 

 length of the body and usually terminating in elegant racket-shaped expan- 

 sions. The feet are undoubtedly the most uniform feature throughout the group, 

 being anisodactyle, that is " unequal-toed," with the fourth toe united for more 

 than half its length to the third, while the second is also united, but only at the 

 base, with the third. In two genera (Alcyone and Ceyx) the second toe is 

 aborted, hence these birds are only three-toed. Among other characters it may 

 be mentioned that the sternum is two-notched, the furcula U-shaped, and the 

 caeca absent, while the oil-gland is tufted, the contour feathers of the body are 

 without aftershaft, and the young are born naked and helpless. The colors of 

 the plumage, as already hinted, are often very beautiful, being in general bluish 

 or greenish above and chestnut or red, variegated with white and black below, 

 with the patterns tastefully arranged and the effect often heightened by a bright- 

 colored bill. The sexes may be alike or unlike even in the same genus. 



Habits and Distribution. As the Kingfishers most familiar to English- 

 speaking people are found in the vicinity of water and feed principally upon 

 fish which they capture alive, it might be supposed that these habits would be 

 characteristic the world over; such, however, is not the case, for while possibly 

 the majority are water-haunting, fish-eating birds, a great many do not eat fish 

 at all, nor do they haunt the vicinity of water, one, a native of Australia, living 

 miles away from it, and where the heat is so intense that few animals can endure 

 it. The food of the water-loving species consists, as stated, of fish varied with 



