86 
ALCEDIN^. ALCEDO. 
and incapable of spreading ; claws well curved, slender, | 
compressed, acute. Plumage blended, but generally firm, 
and often liigbly coloured ; wings of moderate length, ; 
broad ; tail of twelve feathers. | 
These birds belong chiefly to the warmer regions of the i 
globe. They feed upon insects, which they seize on 
wing, or upon small fishes, on which they dart from a 
perch. They generally nestle in holes, laying several 
elliptical white eggs. The young, at first scantily covered i 
with down, remain until fully fledged. i 
Only a single species of each of two genera occurs in 
Britain. 
GENUS XXIII, ALCEDO. KINGFISHER. | 
Bill longer than the head, straight, pentagonal at the ! 
base, then four-sided, compressed, and tapering to a point ; 
upper mandible with the dorsal line almost straight, the ridge | 
narrow, the side sloping, the edges sharp, and destitute of I, 
notch, the tip acute ; lower mandible with the angle short 
and rather ^icute, the dorsal line ascending and slightly con- i 
vex, the ridge narrow, the sides sloping outwards, the edges 
sharp, the tip acute ; gape-line straight, commencing be- I 
neath the eyes. Both mandibles concave internally, tongue 
very small, flattened, broad, with the tip suddenly contract- 
ed ; oesophagus very wide, without crop ; stomach large, with | 
a very thin muscular coat, and soft rugous epithelium ; in- 
testine of moderate length, very slender ; no coeca ; cloaca 
very large, globular. Nostrils linear, direct ; nasal mem- 
brane short. Eyes of moderate size. Aperture of ear rather , 
small, roundish. Feet remarkably small and feeble ; tibia 1 
bare below ; tarsus extremely short, roundish, with indistinct 
scales ; toes short, very slender, the anterior united to nearly 
half their length, covered above with indistinct scales ; claws j 
arched, compressed, acute. Plumage soft, blended, but flrm^ i 
feathers oblong ; wings rather short, very broad, concave, , 
rounded ; primaries not much longer than the secondaries, 
the first extremely small, the third and fourth longest ; tail ' 
short, rounded, ! 
