78 



PICARIAN BIRDS. 



diet, the principal part of which consists of locusts and crickets ; and these it takes 

 by swooping down on them from some perch, as if diving after fish, and seizing 

 them from the bushes and grass, without halting in its flight. It also captures 

 prawns, small crabs, and water insects from stagnant pools, and he has once or 

 twice seen it take cicalas from the trunk of a tree. These kingfishers are very 

 plentiful in Africa, one of the most beautiful species being the African white- 

 breasted kingfisher {H. semicoerulea), which has an entirely red bill, and is easily 





.\FRICAN WHITE-BREASTED KINGFISHER (3 Iiat. size 



distinguished by its ashy white head and chestnut breast and under wing-coverts ; 

 the back being black, witli the lower part bright blue, while the outer surfaces of the 

 wings and tail are blue ; and the throat and chest ashy white like the head. The 

 length of the bird is about 8 inches, and the wing 4 inches. This species is found 

 over the greater part of Africa, as far as the Zanzibar district on the east, and 

 to Angola on the west, being replaced in Southern Africa by an allied species 

 (H. ^mllidiventris), and by H. erythrogaster in the Cape Verde Islands. Von 

 Hueglin states that in North-Eastern Africa he found the present species both near 



