THE MALAYAN KINGFISHER. 
73 
This small and well-known Kingfisher frequents streams of running 
water, canals, ponds and ditches. It is not an inhabitant of forests, being 
almost always found in comparatively open country. It catches small 
fishes either by darting on them from a perch on the side of the water or 
by poising itself in the air in midstream and making a sudden plunge. 
It lays its eggs, which are sometimes as many as seven, in a chamber at 
the end of a narrow tunnel bored by the bird itself in the bank of a stream 
or of a well, and in this latter situation Capt. Wardlaw Kamsay found the 
eggs near Rangoon. The eggs of this and of all other Kingfishers are 
glossy white and spherical in shape. In Burmah it probably breeds from 
March to June. 
A. grandis, from Sikhim, is similar in general appearance to the present 
bird, but is of very bright coloration and large size, the wing being nearly 
four inches in length. It is of extreme rarity. 
463. ALCEDO ASIATICA. 
THE MALAYAN KINGFISHER. 
Alcedo asiatica, Swains. Zool. III. 1st ser. i. pi. 50 ; Sha7'pe, Mon. Alced. p. 23, pi. 5 ; 
Ball, S. F. i. p. 59 ; Hume ^ 8. F. ii. pp. 174, 494, iv. p. 383 ; Bl. ^ Wald. B. 
Burm. p. 71. Alcedo meningting, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 172; 
Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 93 ; Gates, S. F. v. p. 143 ; Hume ^ Dav. S. F. yi, p. 83; 
Hume, S. F. viii. p. 86 ; Oates, jS. F. x, p. 188. Alcedo rufigastra, Wald. 
Anfi. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, xii. p. 487 ; id. Ibis, 1874, p. 136. Alcedo beavani, 
Wald. Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, xiv. p. 158 ; id. Ibis, 1875, p. 461 ; Hume, S. F. 
iv. p. 287 ; Hume 8f Dav. K F. vi. p. 84 ; Hutne, S. F. viii. p. 36, ix. p. 247. 
Description, — Male. A patch on the lores ferruginous, bordered below 
by^a narrow black line ; sides of the head bright blue ; a long patch of 
white on each side of the neck ; forehead, crown and nape black banded 
with bright blue; back, rump and upper tail-coverts shining cobalt; 
scapulars dull blue with bright blue tips ; winglet and primary-coverts 
black ; upper wing-coverts blue, each feather tipped with brighter blue ; 
primaries black, rufous on the inner webs; secondaries and tertiaries 
brown, washed with blue on the outer webs ; chin and throat white tinged 
with buff ; remainder of lower plumage bright chestnut, some of the feathers 
on the sides of the breast tipped with blue. 
The adult female does not difi'er from the male as is usually asserted ; 
but the blue cheeks and ear-coverts are not assumed so quickly as in the 
male. Traces of ferruginous are visible in these parts until the bird is 
aged. 
The young bird differs in having the cheeks and ear-coverts ferruginous : 
