404 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



=Halcycmes Fuerbringbr, Unters. Morpt. Syst. Vog., ii, 1888, 1567. — Sharfe, 



Eev. Classif. Birds, 1891, 80; Hand-list, ii, 1900, 48. 

 =Alcedines Bbddahd, Struct, and Classif. Birds, 1898, 197. 



Synpelmous anisodactyle Coraciiformes with myological formula 

 AX, basipterygoid processes, vomer, cseca, and aftershaft absent, two 

 carotid arteries, and without spinal apterium. 



Palate desmognathous; nares holorhinal, impervious; cervical 

 vertebrae 14-15; complete ribs, 3-4 pairs; metastemum 4-notched; 

 spina externa stemi present, spina interna absent; furcula U-shaped; 

 syrinx tracheo-bronchial; flexor tendons of type V or V6, the hallux 

 connected with the flexor perforans digitorum; intestinal convolu- 

 tions of type VI; tensor patagii brevis muscle present, biceps shp 

 absent; expansor secundariorum and accessory semitendinosus mus- 

 cles either present or absent; feet anisodactyle, synpelmous, the outer 

 (fourth) toe united to middle (third) toe for more than its basal half, 

 the inner (second) toe united to the middle toe by its basal third, but 

 inner toe sometimes wanting; soles of toes flattened; spinal pteryla 

 weU-defined on neck, not forked on upper back; ventral pteryla not 

 only divided centrally, but a^o on each side of breast; oil-gland 

 tufted; secondaries 11-14; primaries 11; rectrices usually 12 (10 in 

 one genus only). 



The Kingfishers are a well-marked group of Picarian birds, 

 characterized by their long, compressed, and acute beak, small feet 

 with soles much flattened and the fourth (outer) toe united to the 

 third (middle) for more than haK its length, and the second (inner) 

 united to the third for its basal third. They differ from the Todies 

 (Todidae) in the absence of caeca, and from the Motmots (Momotidae) 

 in the absence of af tershafts to the feathers, besides in other respects. 

 Among Old World f anuhes they are most nearly related to the Horn- 

 bills (Bucerotidae) and Hoopoes (Upupidae), especially the former, 

 with which the Kingfishers agree closely in the shape of the syndac- 

 tylous foot, in having the oil-gland tufted, in lacking aftershafts to 

 the contour feathers, and in the absence of cohc caeca — characters 

 shared also by the Hoopoes except the first, the feet of the Upupidae 

 being almost typically Passerine in structure. 



The Kingfishers, as their name implies, feed chiefly on small fishes, 

 though some of the species, particularly those belonging to the sub- 

 family Daceloninse, are forest birds and subsist on reptiles and other 

 forms of animal Ufe. They nest in holes which they dig in banks, 

 some of the forest-inhabiting species laying in cavities in trees. Their 

 eggs are invariably pure white. 



The family is very numerously represented in the eastern hemi- 

 sphere, especially in the Malay Archipelago, and thence to New 

 Guinea, where a great variety of generic types are found, many of 

 them among the most beautiful of birds. As stated above, the group 



