4S4 CLASS AVES. 



* 



were fed with bread and raw meat, the latter of which they 

 preferred. If a small bird, or mouse, were let loose in the 

 chamber in which the motmots were kept, they would pursue 

 it in a most determined manner, and when possessed of 

 their prey, would strike it violently against the ground 

 with their bill. This did not appear to be done merely for 

 the purpose of killing it, but to break the bones, in order to 

 swallow the whole more easily. 



The two middle tail-feathers are more than three inches 

 larger than the others, and these feathers are frequently found 

 partially denuded of webs ; this peculiarity is indeed so 

 common, that it was for some time considered generic ; but, 

 as it is never found in the young birds, and not always in the 

 old, there seems to be no doubt that it results from some 

 hitherto unknown habit, and it is not improbable that if these 

 birds breed under ground, the effect in question may result 

 from some friction during the breeding season. 



The Kingfishers, Alcedo, have in general a body thick 

 in proportion to its length ; a large head ; the bill long, angu- 

 lar, and thick at the base ; the nostrils small, and in general 

 covered with feathers ; the tongue fleshy, short, and sharp ; 

 the tarsi very short ; the toes, four ; and, as in all the syn- 

 dactyli, the outer toe and the next are united ; the tail is in 

 general very short. Some of these birds have a crest, but 

 more of them are without. Their stomach is like that of the 

 rapacious birds, and, like them, they return at the mouth, in 

 small pellets, the indigestible parts of their food. 



The species of this genus are very numerous, and are 

 spread over almost all the world. In Europe, however, we 

 have but one, which is as vivid and highly ornamented, as to 

 colour, as any European bird, though much inferior in 

 beauty to those species of the genus which are found within 

 the tropics. The largest of the species are nearly as big as a 



