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Genus HALCYON. 



Ispida apud Brisson, Orn. iv. p. 499 (1760). 



Alcedo apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 186 (1766). 



Halcyon, Swainson, Zool. Illustr. i. text to pi. 27 (1820). 



Dacelo, apud Lesson, Traite d'Orn. p. 246 (1831). 



Entomothera apud Reichenbach, Hand. d. Spec. Orn. p. 12 (1851). 



Entomobia. apud Cabanis & Heine, Mus. Hein. ii. p. 155, footnote (1859). 



The genus Halcyon is a large one, containing, according to Mr. Sharpe, thirty-six species, which 

 inhabit the Palsearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, and Australian Regions, one species only being 

 found in the Western Palaearctic Region. 



In habits these birds differ considerably from Ceryle and Alcedo ; for they not only frequent 

 water but will resort to fields, groves, and gardens, and devour fish, frogs, insects, lizards, grass- 

 hoppers, small mammals, &c. &c, and they rarely dive into the water to capture their prey. They 

 are also said to seize butterflies. They are not gregarious, more than two being seldom seen 

 together. They never hover, and do not frequent open ground, but sit on a branch or some 

 elevated perch in some well-sheltered place, and when disturbed they slink away in the coverts 

 in preference to seeking safety in direct flight. Their note is a loud, rattling, harsh scream, 

 which they usually utter when on the wing. They nest in a hole in a bank, and deposit several 

 round glossy white eggs on a few straws at the end of a hole. 



The type of the present genus is Halcyon senegalensis, an African species ; but as our 

 European bird, Halcyon smymensis, is congeneric, I give its characters, viz. : — bill much longer 

 than the head, straight, stout, pentagonal at the base, then tapering to a point ; gape-line 

 straight, commencing below the eye ; nostrils basal, exposed, oval ; wings moderate, broad, the 

 first quill shorter than the seventh, the third and fourth longest ; inner secondaries nearly as 

 long as the primaries ; tail rather long, graduated ; feet short, the three anterior toes united at 

 the base ; tarsus scutellate ; claws rather long, arched, acute. 



