52 WILD LIFE IN CHINA. 



of a bulbul or a small thrush, and so considerably bigger than 

 his little common cousin. There is the still bigger black- 

 capped kingfisher (Halcyon Pileatits.) His back is of a 

 much darker blue than most. Near him is a white-breasted 

 specimen from Fukien, which province would seem to be a 

 very Paradise of varying species. His back is light blue, 

 but he has much more of a ruddy colour than the rest. 

 Technically, he is known as H. Smyrnensis. Of the Ceryle 

 branch of the genus there are the eastern pied kingfisher, 

 a specimen coming from Fukien, and the great spotted 

 kingfisher, with its fine crest, shot near Maychee. This is 

 a really magnificent bird, albeit its colouring is confined 

 almost entirely to black, white, and grey. The Great Artist 

 is ever capable of the most striking and harmonious com- 

 binationsof the simplest elements. I have seen Ceryle Lugiibris, 

 as this species is called, along the banks of streams amongst 

 the mountains of the province of Chekiang. When the 

 reader, familiar only with our tiny little creek frequenter, is 

 told that this great spotted bird is as big as a well-grown 

 rook and has a bill in proportion he will be prepared for a 

 kingfisher which otherwise might surprise him. The pied 

 variety, also, I think I have seen during travels in Chekiang, 

 but cannot speak with certainty. 



There are other birds of kingfisher type which visit this 

 neighbourhood. As recently as last Easter (1910) during a 

 short holiday at the Hills I saw one quite new to me. It 

 wasabout the size of the white-breasted variety, say roughly 

 that of a small dove. On its first appearance it suprised me 

 by hovering for a moment over a paddy field in course of 

 preparation for rice, and then making a dart down on some- 

 thing on the bank lying between two fields. Thence it return- 

 ed to the branch of an adjoining tree, whence it soon disap- 

 peared, not to be seen again till next day, when it darted 

 pastwith allthespeed,andapartofthe green streak, of Alcedo 

 Ispida. So far as could be made out, its colours were a dark 

 cap on the head, a white throat, a coral-red beak, a back of 

 the greenish-blue so well known, though perhaps a shade 

 darker, and a rufous tinge covering the lower part of the 

 breast and the ventral quarters. But the distinctive marking, 

 that which makes of the bird a complete stranger to me so 

 far, were splashes of white on the upper side of the dark- 

 blue wings, not unlike those of the myna. Altogether the 

 bird is of considerable beauty, and it is to be hoped that ere 

 long there may be a specimen in the Museum for purposes 

 of study. Its behaviour over the paddy field, together with 

 what was seen of it over the creeks, would seem to mark 

 the new-comer as one of those which do not confine them- 

 selves entirely to a fish diet. 



