106 BOMBAY DUCKS 
“Lizards, shrimps, and grasshoppers are greedily ac- 
cepted as dainty morsels by this bird. Although I 
have had the bird about nine months, yet I have never 
seen it drink. Its meat and fish are always placed in a 
jar containing three or four inches of water, into which 
it plunges its massive beak to take out its food. I might 
also add that the bird sometimes immerses its beak in 
the water, instantly withdrawing it with a shake of the 
head, even when not feeding.” Mr. Harper adds, “the 
average weight of food eaten in one day is 1% ounces, 
or equivalent to about twenty-one minnows.” 
The third kind of kingfisher found in Madras is the 
pied one—Ceryle varia. The plumage of this bird is 
black and white, and has been aptly compared to that 
of a silver-spangled Hamburg fowl. This species is the 
finest fisherman of all. It looks for its prey, not while 
sitting on a perch as most kingfishers do, but while 
hovering over the water, and dropping into it like a 
stone when it espies its quarry. This bird has very 
powerful pinions, and will spend long periods on the 
wing without resting on terra firma, Now it hovers 
with rapidly vibrating wings high above the surface of 
the water, then it dashes off to a considerable distance, 
and again hovers; next it makes as if to dive ; it drops, 
but suddenly checks itself, and flies off with a twittering 
scream, to hover again over another part of the water ; 
perhaps this time it espies a likely fish and drops into 
the water, completely disappears for a moment, then 
emerges with its victim. 
Some observers declare that this bird never dives 
without catching a fish. This I cannot believe. I have 
