240 THE BIBDS OF AUSTRALIA 



a point of vantage on a small dead branch, from whieh it flies 

 down to capture its prey. It readily devours grasshoppers and 

 caterpillars, and other insects and their larvae, and small lizards 

 and little snakes, which it kills by beating the head against a 

 stone. "Specimens killed in the neighbourhood of salt marshes 

 had their stomachs literally crammed with crabs and other 

 crustaceous animals, while intent on the capture of which it may 

 be observed silently sitting on the low mangrove bushes skirting 

 the pools which every receding tide leaves either dry or with a 

 surface of wet mud, upon which crabs are to be found in 

 abundance. I have never seen it plunge into the water after fish 

 like the true kingfisher, and I believe it never resorts to that 

 mode of obtaining its prey. On the banks of the Hunter its 

 most favourite food is the larvEe of a species of ant (termites) 

 which it procures by excavating holes in the nests of this insect 

 which are constructed around the holes and dead branches of 

 the Eucalypti, and which resemble excrescences of the tree 

 itself." (Gould). The nesting takes place from October till 

 December, the eggs being laid in hollows of the gum-trees. The 

 eggs are four or five in number, pinky- white, and measure 1.1 x 

 .83 inch. 



The Mangrove Kingfisher. 



Halcyon sordidus. 



North Queensland, Northern Territory, and Aru Islands. 



Head, mantle, and back dusky olive green; lower back, rump and 

 tail blue; ear-coverts black, a small white loral spot and one below the 

 eye; a broad white collar round the hind neck, separated by a line of 

 black from the crown; under surfaces white, buffish in parts. Total 

 length 10 inches, culmen 2.4, wing 4.4., tail 3, tarsus .6. 



West Australian Sacred Kingfisher. 

 JS. westralasianus. 

 Very similar to H. sanctus, nuchal band and under parts white and 

 not buff coloured as in E. sanctus. 



land. 



Genus Tanysipiera. 

 Moluccas, Papuan Islands and one species in North Queens- 



