ALCEDIHIDjK. 



distance, speedily resettling, unless the banks are rery bare, when 

 they continue their flight to the nearest convenient clump of 

 shrubs. Their manner of taking prey from the water is by 

 swooping down obliquely towards it, continuing their flight and 

 not returning to their original perch. Occasionally they hover 

 in the air when they are attracted by something in the water, and 

 drop almost perpendicularly into it ; in such cases, however, they 

 never dive to any depth, seldom immersing more than their head 

 and neck. 



" Their usual cry is much like that of all Kingfishers, but very 

 loud, and uttered in a very quick succession of notes. Besides 

 this cry it gives a low hoarse croak from time to time when seated 

 in deep shadow, and this is, I think, the common call to its mate ; 

 at all events, when two birds are fishing in company and one 

 of them utters this sound, the other bird always answers it. It 

 is not a noisy bird on the whole. 



" Its flight is extremely strong, and it is capable of going at great 

 speed ; but when not frightened or otherwise hurried, it seems to 

 content itself with a sort of half-power speed, and goes along very 

 lazUy, slowly flapping its wings. 



" This bird is the last of the Kingfishers to retire to roost at 

 night. I have sometimes seen it flitting about when it had 

 become quite dusk. In flying at any distance the whole bird 

 presents a grey appearance, merely the head appearing black 

 from the feathers laying down close to the head. This crest can 

 be raised by the bird at will, and when uttering the croak above 

 mentioned it raises and depresses it two or three times with 

 each cry. 



" This bird, when it is successful in taking a fish too big to 

 swallow at once, often has to give up its capture to Haliaetus 

 fvlviventer, which is a frequenter of the same streams as it haunts 

 itself, and which is much given to living on other people and by 

 other people's exertions, always preferring ready-caught fish to the 

 trouble of hunting for them itsefi. The eagle, on swooping down, 

 utters a loud vibrating cry, and, on hearing this, Ceryle drops the 

 fish without the slightest hesitation, and, accelerating his speed, 

 seeks safety for himself in the nearest cover. 



" As may be imagined, the shadow of any large eagle or hawk 

 flying overhead is enough to reduce this bird to absolute silence ; 

 the other Kingfishers appear, however, not to mind at all." 



Ceryle rudis (Linn.). The Pied Kingfisher. 



C'ei'vle rudis {Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 232 ; Hume, Rough Draft 

 iV'.^i'. no.l36. 



The Pied Kingfisher breeds everywhere throughout the plains 

 of India, and invariably, I think, in holes of banks overlooking 

 running water, and, as a ride, in those of our larger rivers. It is 



