﻿but as thev, although closely allied, constitute at least three distinct species, the present 

 nafire must necessarily treat exclusively of the one that inhabits New South Wales and South 

 Australia, over the whole of which countries it is dispersed, wherever brooks, ponds, and 

 other waters occur suitable to its habits and mode of life. In size and in brilliancy of 

 plumage, the Azure Kingfisher is intermediate between the species inhabiting the North 

 Coast and that found in Tasmania; although generically distinct from the Kingfisher of 

 Europe it has many characters in common with that bird. It subsists almost exclusively 

 on small fish and aquatic insects, which it captures in the water by darting down from some 

 bare branch overhanging the stream, and to which it generally returns to kill and devour 

 its prey, which is swallowed entire and head foremost, after the manner of the little 

 favourite of our own island. It is a solitary bird, a pair, and frequently only one, being 

 found at the same spot. During the breeding- season it becomes querulous and active, and 

 even pugnacious if any intruder of the same species should venture within the precincts of 

 its abode. The males at this season chase each other up and down the stream with arrow- 

 like quickness, when, the rich azure-blue of the back glittering in the sun, they appear 

 more like meteors, as they dart by the spectator, than birds. The task of incubation 

 commences in August and terminates in January, during which period two broods are 

 usually brought forth. The eggs, which are of a beautiful pearly or pinkish white and 

 rather round in form, are deposited at the extremity of a hole, in a perpendicular or 

 shelving bank bordering the stream, without any nest being made for their reception; they 

 are from five to seven in number, three quarters of an inch broad by seven-eighths of an 

 inch long. The young at the first moult assume the plumage of the adult which is never 

 afterwards changed. The hole occupied by the bird is frequently almost filled up with the 

 bones of small fish, which are discharged from the throat and piled up round the young in 

 the form of a nest. Immediately on leaving their holes the young follow their parents 

 from one part of the brook to another, and are fed by them while resting on some stone or 

 branch near the water's edge ; they soon, however, become able to obtain their own food, 

 and may be observed at a very early age plunging into the water to a considerable depth 

 to capture small fish and insects." 



" The sexes are precisely similar in the colouring of their plumage, neither do they 

 differ in size. The young are very clamorous, frequently uttering their twittering cry as 

 their parents pass and repass the branch on which they are sitting.'' 



Mr. E. P. Ramsay has very kindly forwarded me the following interesting particulars 

 respecting the habits of the present species : — 



" Now while all the members of the genus Todiramphus are strictly land Kingfishers, 

 all the members of the genus Alcyone have just the opposite habits, being always found in 

 the vicinity of water ; they love to dwell on the sides of creeks and rivers, either salt or 

 fresh. The present species is abundant in all parts of New South Wales, wherever water 

 is to be found ; they spend their time in watching for their prey from the branches overhang- 

 ing the water-holes, creeks and rivers, edges of lakes and lagoons ; in fact, wherever the trees 

 along the water's edge afford them shelter, and the denser the foliage, the better they are 

 pleased. They are very expert in catching fish, and plunge deeply into the water, some- 

 tinu's completely under the surface. A pair have resorted for many successive breed ing- 

 seasons to a water-hole on the Dobroyde Estate, where they have tunnelled in the bank of 

 soft clay, and they often occupy the same hole for several years in succession. The eggs 

 are five in number, "9 inches long by '75 inches broad, round and pearly white, laid upon a 

 floor of fish-bones, scales, and remains of coleptera; I have taken two good handfulls out 

 of their nest on several occasions. The tunnel is usually from 20 to 30 inches long, 2£ 

 to 3 inches wide, and the chamber at the end about 5 inches in diameter. I differ from Mr. 

 Gould in considering that the debris found in the nest of this species has been ' discharged 

 from the throat and piled up round the young,' from the simple fact that time bones and 

 .-vales are found under eggs before the full coinjjlement has been laid for one sitting, secondly 



