106 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
ae a J s bill, he tells us, is coral-red, the 
| under-surface pure white, the back 
and wings deep purple, while the 
shoulders, head, and nape, and some 
spots on the upper part of the back 
and wings, are pure azure-blue. The 
tail is white, narrowly edged with 
blue. These birds live upon insects 
and small Jand-mollusca, which they 
dart down upon and pick up from the 
ground just as the fish-eating species 
pick up a fish. 
Of the forest-haunting species, 
however, the best known is probably 
the large and, for a kingfisher, dull- 
coloured LAUGHING-JACKASS, or 
SETTLER’S CLOCK, of Australia. Its 
food is of a very mixed character — 
small mammals, reptiles, insects, and 
crabs being devoured with equal relish. 
Since it is not seldom to be seen 
bearing off a snake in its bill, it may 
be regarded as a useful bird — sup- 
f 
| 
L 
a < ‘ = | 
Photo by C. N, Mavroyeni) (Smyrna 
posing, of course, the snake to be of 
KINGFISHER a poisonous variety. A good idea of 
The photograph shows the nature of the favourite haunts of this species the bird in its native haunts is given 
by the late Mr. Wheelwright. ‘ About 
an hour before sunrise,” he writes, ‘the bushman is awakened by the most discordant sounds, as 
if a troop of fiends were shouting, whooping, and laughing around him in one wild chorus. 
This is the morning song of the ‘ laughing-jackass,’ warning his feathered mates that daybreak 
is at hand. At noon the same wild laugh is heard, and as the sun sinks into the west it 
again rings through the forest. I shall never forget the first night I slept in the open bush in 
this country. It was in the Black Forest. I woke about daybreak after a confused sleep, and 
for some minutes I could not remember where I was, such were the extraordinary sounds that 
greeted my ears: the fiendish laugh of the jackass, the clear, flute-like notes of the magpie, 
the hoarse cackle of the wattle-birds . . . and the screaming of thousands of parrots as they 
dashed through the forest, all giving chorus, formed one of the most extraordinary concerts 
I have ever heard, and seemed, at the moment, to have been got up for the purpose of 
welcoming the stranger to this land of wonders on that eventful morning. I have heard it 
hundreds of times since, but never with the same feelings that I listened to it then. The 
laughing-jackass is the bushman's clock, and being by no means shy, of a companionable 
nature, and a constant attendant on the bush-tent and a destroyer of snakes, is regarded, like 
the robin at home, as a sacred bird in the Australian forests. It is an uncouth-looking bird 
nearly the size of a crow, of a rich chestnut-brown and dirty white colour, the wings 
slightly chequered with light blue, after the manner of the British jay. The tail-feathers are 
long, rather pointed, and barred with brown. ... It is a common bird in all the forest 
throughout the year, breeds in the hole of a tree, and the eggs are white.” 
Whilst the Kingfishers are remarkable for the wondrous beauty of their coloration, the 
HORNBILLS, their allies, attract our attention rather by the grotesqueness of their shape, due to 
the enormous size of the bill, and the still more remarkable horny excrescences which surmount 
it in not a few species, forming what is known as a “casque.” Absent in some of the 
smaller and possibly more primitive forms, its gradual development may be traced, beginning 
