J5LACK-AXD- WHITE KINGFISHER. 
1()8 
Mr. Swinlioc also, in liis very interesting paper on 
tlie Ornithology of Amoy, (“Ibis,” vol. ii, p. 49,) says 
that it is “very common on the river, where it is to 
be found at all seasons; it poises on the wing at a 
lu'ight above the water, and drops suddenly down to 
catch its prey. I have however seen it strike obliquely, 
when flying close to the surface of the water.” 
Like other Kingfishers this bird makes a nest in the 
holes of banks of rivers, and lays four or five eggs, 
which are white, glossy, and nearly round. 
The plumage of the Black-and-AYhite Kingfisher is 
very difficult to describe minutely, as almost each 
feather, as Swainson remarks, is varied in a different 
manner. 
The male in breeding plumage has the crown of the 
head and its crest black, with longitudinal streaks of 
white; all the rest of the upper parts are a mottled 
black and white; primaries and tail black and white; 
the white line which springs from each nostril is 
“carried over the eye and ears, and is lost in the 
variegated feathers of the crest.” All the under parts 
are pure glossy white, with a broad belt of deep glossy 
black across the chest, narrowed or interrupted in the 
centre; the flanks thinly striped with black. The iris, 
beak, and feet black. 
According to Degland the female is rather less, has 
more white in the plumage, the black collar less 
extended, and sometimes there is a second, which may 
probably have caused Swainson to describe the Senegal 
species as distinct. He certainly gives no separate 
distinction of the sexes. 
Before the first moult, the white of the upper parts 
is less pure, with a number of black dashes; the 
black collar on the chest is only faintly indicated by 
