HALCYONIDiE. 221 



like that of the Bee-eaters. They breed in holes in banks, and 

 lay several rotund white eggs ; sometimes placed, as has lately 

 been ascertained, on a mass of fish-bones. They are noisy birds ; 

 most of them having a harsh, screaming call. The head is large, 

 and the body stout and muscular : the tongue short ; their stomach 

 membranous ; and the intestines long and slender, without coeca. 

 The sternum has two emarginations on each side. 



Some naturalists, as Swainson, Gray, and others, include 

 in this family the Bucconidce, or PufF-birds of South America, 

 and the Galbulidce, or Jacamars ; and they are certainly very 

 closely allied, as well in structure as in habits, and might be well 

 associated with the Kingfishers in a philosophic arrangement : but 

 I shall keep them distinct here, and give a brief sketch of their 

 leading features at the close of the family. 



Many curious fables and superstitions are attached to the 

 Kingfisher, as well in modern as in ancient times ; and ' Halcyon 

 days' are still proverbial. The common Kingfisher, if hung up in 

 a closed room, was supposed to point its bill or breast always to 

 the wind, and even to show the flow and ebb of the tide ; and 

 the Tartars of Northern Asia wear its dried skin, as an amulet to 

 secure good fortune. 



Sub-fam. Halcyonin^. 



Mostly of large size ; bill strong, thick, broad at the base 

 straight ; culmen slightly inclining at the tip ; gape smooth • 

 wings short, broad. They are pecvdiar to the Old World division 

 of the globe, with Australia and the islands. 



Gen. Halcyon, Swainson. 



Bill long, straight, deep, and broad, somewhat quadrangular ; 

 culmen, in some, inclining towards the tip, near which the margin 

 is slightly sinuated ; lower mandible angulated ; gonys ascendino' 

 towards the tip ; wing rather short, 3rd quill longest, 4th and 

 5th nearly equal ; tail short, rounded, or even ; feet with the 

 outer toe nearly as long as the middle toe, syndactyle for more 

 than half its lengtli ; scales of the tarsus obsolete. 



