35o 



BELTED KINGSFISHER. 



streams and falling waters ; not, however, merely that they 

 may soothe his ear, but for a gratification somewhat more 

 substantial. Amidst the roar of the cataract, or over the 

 foam of a torrent, he sits perched upon an overhanging bough, 

 glancing his piercing eye in every direction below for his scaly 

 prey, which, with a sudden circular plunge, he sweeps from 

 their native element, and swallows in an instant. His voice, 

 which is not unlike the twirling of a watchman's rattle, is 

 naturally loud, harsh, and sudden ; but is softened by the 

 sound of the brawling streams and cascades among which 

 he generally rambles. He courses along the windings of the 

 brook or river, at a small height above the surface, sometimes 

 suspending himself by the rapid action of his wings, like 

 certain species of hawks, ready to pounce on the fry below ; 

 now and then settling on an old dead overhanging limb to 

 reconnoitre.* Mill-dams are particularly visited by this 

 feathered fisher ; and the sound of his pipe is as well known 

 to the miller as the rattling of his own hopper. Rapid 



&c. ; containing Lesson's Todyrampus, also perhaps his Syma, and the 

 Tanysiptera of Vigors ; the two latter groups, as species, would he at 

 once distinguished by the peculiarities of form which are perhaps not 

 sufficient to indicate a genus without more of like characters ; geogra- 

 phical distribution, South America, New Holland, Africa, and India. 

 3. Dacelo ; the form, D. gigantea ; geographical distribution, New Hol- 

 land. And 4. Ceyx, containing the three-toed kingsfisher C. tridactyla ; 

 geographical distribution, India. — Ed. 



* Mr Audubon mentions, that this species sometimes also visits the 

 salt-water creeks, diving after fish. When crossing from one lake to 

 another, which it frequently does, it passes over forests in a direct line, 

 not unfrequently by a course of twenty or thirty miles, towards the 

 interior of the country. Its motions at this time consist of a series of 

 slopes, about five or six in number, followed by a direct glide, without 

 any apparent undulation. 



They dig the holes for their nest with great despatch. As an instance 

 of their working with celerity, the same gentleman mentions, that he 

 hung a small net in front of one of their holes to entrap the bird upon 

 the nest ; but, ere morning, it had scratched its way out. On the fol- 

 lowing evening, he stopped up the hole for upwards of a foot with a 

 stick, but the same thing again took place. — Ed. 



