TPIE FAWN-BEEASTED KINGFISHER 237 



The Fawn-breasted Kingfisher. 



Dacelo cervina. 



Western and North-west Australia, Northern Territory and North 

 Queensland. 



Very like the preceding but smaller. Total length 1.5 inches, culmen 

 2.93, wing 7.5, tail 4.75, tarsus 1. 



The genus Dacelo comprises the Kookaburras or "Laughing 

 Jackasses," the best known of our birds. The habits and voice 

 of all the three species are very much the same. They are met 

 with in most situations, but are commonest in the open forests. 

 They seem to be inquisitive birds, and frequently come and perch 

 on a branch of a tree near your camp in the bush, watching your 

 operations with much curiosity. They feed on lizards, snakes, 

 larger insects {On dit that the Jackass has been heard to laugh 

 while a Cicada has been skirring inside him) and small mammals 

 and birds. The snake is seized as the bird makes a sudden dash 

 down, taken up quickly to a height and dropped on the ground, 

 the operation being repeated until the snake is killed or so 

 stunned that the bird can swallow it, head first, with safety. 

 Gould shot a Jackass in South Australia in order to secure a 

 fine rat he saw hanging from its mouth, and the rat proved to 

 be a new species. The laugh is like nothing else in nature, the 

 wildest human eachinnation falling short of its glory. At the 

 dawn when he wakes up to the exhilaration of renewed activity, 

 and at even when a number of birds sit together on a branch 

 to bid farewell to the sun, or to chuckle over the happy hunting 

 of the past day, the Jackass is heard at his best. Then the bush 

 resounds with the Ha Ha Huh Huh Ho Ho Ha Huh in deafening 

 chorus, "a chorus of wild spirits" as Sturt called it. The sun 

 goes down and the strange serenade ceases. 



The eggs, four or five, are laid in a hole in a gum-tree or in 

 one of the great masses built by the white ants (termites) on the 

 trees. There is no addition made by way of nest. The eggs are 

 smooth, glossy and pearly white, measuring 1.8 by 1.4 inch. 

 Those of D. leachii are a little larger. 



The Kookaburra does well in captivity, becomes very friendly 

 and submits to handling. It is an unfailing source of amuse- 

 ment and pleasure in its infinite variety of attitudes, of the 

 humour of which it appears to be by no means unconscious. 



