Birds of Celebes; Coraciidae. 
315 
Distribution of the species. From the Himalayas and Amoor-land southwards to Ceylon, the 
islands of the Bay of Bengal, throughout the East Indies and Papuasia — except 
the Hew Britain and Solomon Glroups ■ — ■ to Yictoria and South Australia, occasion- 
ally wandering to Hew Zealand. 
On the habits of E. orientalis^ the Broad-billed Holler, in Celebes Meyer 
writes: “This bird sleeps in the morning, and searches for food at midday; in 
the evening it flies after beetles. It is to be seen 'near river-banks, where it 
sits a long time quietly on a branch of a tree over the water, and can easily 
be shot, not being a shy bird”. Similarly its mode of life is described by 
Morgan in Malabar (Str. F. 1874, II, 531), by Oates and by Davison in Burmah 
and Tenasserim (B. Brit. Bnrm. II, 71; Str. F. VI, 72), by M^hitehead in Borneo 
(Ibis 1890, 21), by Gould in Australia. Hartert (J. f O. 1889, 364), when in 
Assam, watched the bird performing ptlays of flight above high forest during the 
hot hours of midday after the manner of the Holler. On the whole, however, the 
bird may be put down as of a sedentary disposition and almost semi-crepuscular in 
habits. But that it has fine powers of flight is shown indirectly by the shape of its 
wings, and directly by its occasionally straggling to Hew Zealand, a distance of up- 
wards of 1000 miles from the nearest point of Australia. It preys upon insects — 
chiefly, though probably not solely, beetles — caught on the wing or on the ground ; 
a tame specimen kept by Blyth acquired a great liking for plantains (B. Ceylon, 
286). It is, as Gould remarks, a very bold bird at all times, particularly so during 
the breeding season; as is too often the case, however, boldness is accompanied 
by cruelty, and it is said, writes Gould, to take young Parrots from their holes 
and kill them, an observation confirmed by E. P. Hamsay, who remarks that 
“they not unfrequently fight with, and dispossess the Dacelo gigas, and I have 
seen them take the young of the bird and throw them out of the nest” (Pr. L. 
Soc. N. S. Wales VII, 46). Its note is described by Meyer as kiak, kiak, by 
Whitehead as kick, kick, “sounding somewhat like the noise made by coach- 
men to horses” (1. c.); it is also said to have a single, full, deep-toned whistle 
(Legge, 1. c.). 
The plumage in the genus Eurystomus is remarkably similar to that of 
Coracias. The two genera are remotely related, hence the type of plumage is 
131’obably very ancient. It is interesting in this connection to observe that the 
sexes are alike and that the young hardly differ from them. 
Eurystomus orientalis appears to be a species in process of undergoing diffe- 
rentiation into numerous smaller ones, a process which is not yet complete in 
most quarters. As the bird is migratory both in its northern territories and in 
Australia there can be no doubt that its distribution has taken place by flight. 
The genus Eurystomus also occurs in Madagascar and tropical Africa, being 
represented there by three species nearly related to one another, but very distinct 
from E. orientalis-, they are placed in a different genus, Cornopio by Cabanis & 
Heine (Mus. Hein. II, 119) and Heine & Heichenow (Nomencl. Mus. Hein. 
40 * 
