220 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



called tho Pitidarya nilkant, which could have been no other than 

 this bird. It was said to visit Central India, occasionally, in the 

 cold weather. This Eoller is stated to take its prey more on the 

 wing than the common Rollers, and keeps much to the thick and lofty 

 forests, though occasionally found in well-wooded regions, as about 

 Calcutta. Layard says that it clings to trees like a Woodpecker, 

 and that he saw it tearing away the decayed wood round a hole in 

 a dead tree. " Their stomachs were," says he, " full of wood-boring 

 Coleoptera, swallowed whole, merely a little crushed ; and I saw 

 them beat their food against the trees." These are rather 

 anomalous habits for a Roller. 



Gould remarks, of the very closely allied species from Australia, 

 E. pacificus, that it captures insects on the wing from its perch on 

 a tree, and that he always found Coleoptera in its stomach. He 

 further states that it is a noisy bird, and breeds in holes in trees. 

 In confinement it eats plantains greedily, and, probably, in its 

 wild state, does so at times. 



Besides E. paci/icus, already alluded to, there is another 

 species, E. gularis, V., from New Guinea ; and two or three species 

 from Africa and IMadagascar, one or more of them approaching in 

 coloiu'Ing to \hQ Halcyon coromandelianvs (p. 227). The only other 

 birds put in this family belong to the genus Brachypteracias, contain- 

 ing two or three species, from Madagascar, and these are doubtfully 

 Eollers. 



Fam. ILvLCYONiDyE, Vigors, King-fishers. 



Bill very long, stout, angular, straight, pointed, broadish at base, 

 acute at tip ; gape wide ; rictus smooth ; wings moderate, 

 rounded ; tail usually short ; tarsus and toes very small, feeble, 

 the latter much syndactyle, especially the outer one to the middle ; 

 one toe sometimes wanting. 



The Kingfishers are a well-known tribe, found in all parts 

 of the world; most of them diving in the water for small fishes, 

 others eating crabs, insects, and reptiles. They sit motionless 

 and Avatch for their prey, generally from a fixed perch ; one 

 or two questing a good deal on the wing. Their flight is rapid, 

 with quickly repeated flappings, but cannot be long sustained, 



