HALCYON SMYRNENSIS. 299 



Obs. Although the chestnut colour iu this species is variable, I doubt not that, if a large series of Ceylonese examples 

 were compared with a good many from most parts of India, they would be found to be, as a rule, darker than the 

 latter ; and I do not think they attain the same size as some Indian specimens. Mr. Hume gives the largest of 

 forty birds as 4 - S5 in the wing, and remarks that his extreme southern specimens from Anjango are the darkest 

 and smallest, and therefore correspond best with ours. The least wing-dimension in Anjango birds is 4-4. I have, 

 however, a specimen from Bamisserum Island with the wing 4 - 5 inches, but with a very small bill, measuring 2-35 

 to gape and 048 in depth at gonys-angle. It likewise has the chest very strongly tinged with green. As regards 

 the head and hind-neck hues, Ceylonese birds resemble those from the Andamans ; but these latter, in addition to 

 being darker than those from any other part of Asia, are larger, and have therefore been separated as H. saturatior 

 by Mr. Hume. The greenish-blue tint on the white chest is observable in Nepal, Kamptee, and Beloochistan 

 specimens, also in one from Jericho ; but they must be held from the light, with the bill pointed towards the 

 eye, in order to produce this colour to the greatest extent. The Jericho specimen is somewhat paler on the head 

 than one from Colombo ; but the under parts and sides of the chest are darker if any thing : it has the wing 5*1 

 inches ; bill to gape 2-7. Another from Beloochistan is slightly greener in all lights than Ceylonese individuals, 

 and has a white stripe above the lores ; wing 4'95, bill to gape 2-7. Ajo. example from Bagdad is pale on the 

 head and has a white superciliary line. Tor purposes of comparison, I will add that an Andaman example of 

 H. saturatior measures 5 - l inches in the wing, but the bill to gape is only 2*75. 



Distribution. — This handsome Kingfisher is extremely common in Ceylon, and is spread over the whole 

 island, inhabiting the Kandyan Province up to the altitude of Nuwara Elliya, at which place it has made its 

 appearance since the lake was found. It is more plentiful in the Western and Southern Provinces and in the 

 cultivated portions of the northern district than in the jungle-covered country of the interior, for though it 

 occurs on the forest-rivers it is not so abundant as the Stork-billed or little Blue Kingfishers. It is fairly 

 numerous in the islands of the Jaffna district and in Manaar, and Mr. Holdsworth says it is not uncommon 

 at Aripn. In the northern forests it is more often found near village tanks and on new clearings than else- 

 where. In the Kandyan Province it is chiefly an inhabitant of the terraced paddy-fields, and is tolerably 

 numerous in the well-cultivated valleys. 



Out of Ceylon it has a very wide range, being found all over India, extending eastward to China and 

 westward to Palestine and Asia Minor. As regards India it has been recorded as a common bird from all 

 parts of the low-lying districts which have been worked out ; but though Mr. Bourdillon found it plentiful at 

 the foot of the Travancore hills, it did not ascend there to any height. Mr. Fairbank likewise only observed 

 it in the lower Palanis. 



Prom the low districts of Bengal, where it is very common, it extends to the base of the Himalayas, and 

 westward through Sindh into Persia and Palestine, where Canon Tristram found it in the Jordan valley up 

 to the sources of the river ; beyond this Russel recorded it, in the last century, in his ' Natural History of 

 Aleppo/ to be an inhabitant of Asia Minor. Captain Graves met with it in the same locality after the lapse 

 of a century, during which time it had escaped the observation of naturalists. Canon Tristram and Mr. Sharpe 

 note it as a doubtful straggler to Europe. From Burmah it extends into Tenasserim aud the Malay peninsula. 

 In many parts of China it is common, and resident, according to Mr. Swinhoe, from Canton to the river 

 Yangtsze ; he likewise procured it in Formosa. 



Habits. — Although this Kingfisher frequents paddy-fields, streams, rivers, swamps, and fresh water in all 

 situations, it is almost as often found affecting clearings in the jungle, dried-up fields, cultivated gardens, and 

 the edges of open wastes, and in such places subsists on lizards, grasshoppers, crickets, locusts, and even small 

 snakes. It invariably resorts to new clearings in the forest after they have been burnt off, and takes up its 

 position on stumps or branches of charred trees, and therefrom flies down on the lizards and insects which it 

 espies on the blackened soil. Mr. Inglis, in his ' List of Birds of Cachar/ mentions seeing one so occupied for 

 half an hour, and on shooting it found its stomach crammed with crickets. Mr. Ball has seen it dive for fish on 

 one occasion ; but this must be an occurrence of extreme rarity ; be writes that in Chota Nagpur it is snared, and 

 the flattened-out skins disposed of to merchants, who sell them to Burmese traders for ornamenting court- 

 dresses. In Ceylon it is best known to those who do not penetrate into the wilds as an inhabitant of the paddy- 

 fields, of which it is one of the chief ornaments in the way of bird-life, and is the first bird which attracts the 

 attention of the new arrival in the island as he trudges through his first hot December-day's Snipe-shooting. 



9 o 9. 



