THE YELLOW-BILLED KINGFISHEK 235 



The Kingfishers are met with along the rivers and creeks. 

 They will sit on a bare branch overhanging the stream, and 

 suddenly dart down into the water, plunging beneath the sur- 

 face to seize a fish or some smaller aquatic creature, and return 

 to their point of vantage to kill and devour the prey. A single 

 bird, or a pair, seem to confine themselves to a particular 

 stretch of the stream which they make their beat, and at some 

 spot in which you may generally be able to observe them, as 

 they speed up and down the water-course with arrow-like quick- 

 ness. As the sun catches the plumage the glittering blue makes 

 the bird a most beautiful object. The eggs are laid at the 

 extremity of a hole drilled in the vertical or shelving bank of the 

 stream, without any nest. They are rounder than those of most 

 birds, pearly white, five to seven in the clutch. Dimensions of 

 those of A. azurea, .86 x .75 inch. 



Sui-family Daeeloninm. 

 Bill usually more or less depressed, compressed and laterally 

 grooved in Halcyon, ilostly feeding on insects or reptiles. 

 In our genera the tail longer than the bill, in Tanysiptera 

 exceeding the length of the wing. Southern Asia with Malaysia 

 and Polynesia. 



Key to the Genera. 



Tail feathers 12. Tail rounded or graduated. 



Bill depressed. Smaller, total length 7 inches. Syma. 



Larger, total length 15-17 inches. Dacelo. 



Bill compressed and laterally grooved. Halcyon. 



Tail feathers 10, the central ones extraordinarily elongated. Tanysiptera. 



Genus Syma. 

 Confined to Papuan Islands and Northern Australia. 



The Yellow-billed Kingfisher. 



Syma flavirostris. 



Northern Territory and North Queensland. 



Head and hind neck bright cinnamon rufous; mantle and upper back 

 dull green; lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts greenish-blue, tail 

 feathers dark blue; under surfaces bright cinnamon rufous; throat and 

 abdomen paler, a black half collar on the hind neck; bill yellow; eulmen 

 black; feet orange; iris blackish. Total length 7 inches, eulmen 1..5, wing 

 3.05, tail 2.3, tarsus .55. The female has a large black patch on the 

 centre of the crown. 



