KIN&FISHEES 
(A Icedmidic) 
The family of kingfishers consisting of a large number of 
species includes some of the most beautiful of birds. They 
occur hi most parts of the world but in Malaysia and thence 
east to New Guinea they are particularly abundant. King- 
fishers are, almost without exception, birds of brilliant plumage 
and normally they have a raucous voice and are of unsociable 
habits. All the species lay round eggs which are glossy white 
and deposited in a hole in a bank or tree. Naturalists usiially 
divide the Alcedimdw into two sub-families both of which are 
represented in Singapore. Tlie first of these may be known 
popularly as the water-kingfishers which may be characterized 
by the long slender bill which has a keel along the upper 
mandible- The second sub- family consists of the wood-king- 
fishers, birds with a stronger, wider bilL The wood- king- 
fishers which feed largely on insects, small reptiles^ etc. are 
also well represented in Malaya. 
Yoang kingfishers are very q^neer-looking little beasts. 
When just hatched they are naked and they never grow any 
"down" but the adult feathers appear at once^ each feather 
enclosed in a thin tube or sheath. Until the sheaths burst 
and reveal the feathers the chick suggests a hedgehog in 
appearance 1 
Sixteen species occur in the Malay Peninsula, Some of 
these show a marked preference for certain haunts. Tims the 
little yellow birds of the genus C cy,r like the forest streams 
but other kinds are rarely found away from sah water; some 
are true denizens of the jungle and do not feed on fish. 
Of the eleven species recorded from Singapore only six 
are at all likely to be met with, but one or two of these are 
among the most familiar birds of the island. 
The student of birds always recalls that the late 
Dr, Bowdler Shaq^e, the greatest omitholoj^ist who ever lived, 
published his magnificent monograph of the kingfishers when 
littk' more than a boy. 
