76 



FJCARIAN BIRDS. 



chiefly on flsh and water insects, with an occasional shrimp or fresh-water prawn. 

 Its cry is a shrill, piping note, not unlike that of the common kingfisher, but shriller 

 and less powerful, and not apparently uttered except on the wing. It has a \&vj 

 powerful flight, and is capable of great speed, darting along the stream like a ruby 

 meteor. Even when the bird is not disturbed, but is merely moving from place 

 to place, its flight is very swift. When it feeds, it returns again and again to the 

 same perch, and keeps to a confined area, being found day after day about the same 







LAUGHING KINGFISHER (| nat. size 



spot, from which it seldom flies more than a mile. Mr. Baker has watched the 

 birds making their tunnel into a sandy bank, and believes that the earth is pecked 

 away by the bird's bill and the sand ejected by a backward motion of its feet. 



Laughing Inhabitants of Australia and the Papuan Islands, these birds are 



Kmgflsiiers. ]3gg^ known by the laughing kingfisher (Dacelo glgantea), or laughing- 

 jackass, as it is termed by the Australian settlers, which is a large bird, measuring* 

 17 inches in total length, with a wing of 8^, and a tail of 6h inches. The general 

 colour is brown, with the lower back greenish blue ; the median wing-coverts 



