ORDER TASSERES. ' 425 



crow ; but the smallest do not much exceed the size of the 

 nightingale. 



Few birds have given rise to more superstition and folly in 

 mankind than these. The Greeks called the common species 

 Alcyon, from Alcyone, the daughter of ^olus, and wife of 

 Ceyx, on whose death, by drowning, as the poets inform us, 

 she threw herself into the sea, and both were metamorphosed 

 into kingfishers. M. Lacepede has separated the kingfishers 

 with three toes into a distinct genus under the name of Ceyx. 

 The ancients had, moreover, many superstitious notions with 

 regard to these birds ; and even in the present day, and in 

 very different parts, as in Siberia and the South Sea Islands, 

 they are still looked upon with veneration and awe. 



It was till lately considered that fish was the general if not 

 the sole food of all the birds of this genus, though at times 

 they are obliged to satisfy themselves with worms and insects. 

 This is certainly true as to such of the species as are inhabi- 

 tants of the ba\iks of rivers. 



The rage for improvement, and assisting the memory by 

 the invention of new genera, has extended itself to the king- 

 fishers, although the numerous species of these birds, widely 

 spread over the surface of the earth, are as yet insufficiently 

 known for the purposes of interrelative comparisons. Cuvier 

 has distinguished, as subgenera, or groups, the common king- 

 fisher, with its similars with a straight and pointed bill ; 

 others with the under mandible swelled out; and others, 

 again, with the mandible bent at the end, and the feathers 

 loose and unlike aquatic birds ; to which he has added the 

 genus Ceyx of Lacepede, or kingfisher with three toes. 



M. Vieillot has also divided these birds according to the 

 number of the toes ; but he has subdivided those with four 

 toes into three sections ; the first of which is distinguished by 

 a straight quadrangular bill ; the second by a straight tri- 

 angular bill, having the lower mandible convex ; and the 



