NIGHTJARS AND KIA^GFISIIEES. 
15 
there are some found in Africa which measure up- 
wards of fourteen inches in lengtli, and the little 
E-ufous-cheeked Kinghunter (^Halcyon cyanotis) mea- 
sures only four inches and a half in its entire length. 
Tlie Kinghunters have been separated from the pre- 
ceding genus of late years, since their habits and 
structure have been better known. Their bill is gene- 
rally very broad at the base, in some species even 
depressed ; and instead of living upon fish, they seem 
to frequent forests for the sake of capturing small 
reptiles and insects. These birds are called by the 
French naturalists Martin chasseurs. 
Mr. Swainson, in describing the little Eufous-cheeked 
Kinghunter, says that this superb little species may be 
called the gem of the family, both from its diminutive 
size and its exceeding richness of colouring. The 
crown of the head is occupied by an isolated broad 
patch of deep black, each feather having a transverse 
blue band across its tip, which gives this part the 
appearance of being lineated with ultramarine. From 
each nostril commences a large patch of rufous, which 
envelopes the base of the lower mandible, the ears, 
and the sides of. the head, where it forms a broad 
stripe over the eye ; tliis rufous encircles the neck 
above, and is glossed upon the ears, the nape and the 
maxillary stripe, with a most lovely lilac or violet 
colour; neither does it blend into the white of the 
throat, but terminates abruptly on its sides ; the back 
scapulars and tail-coverts are uniform ultramarine 
blue ; the wings and tail black, slightly glossed with 
the same ; the wing-coverts are tipped with blue ; 
chin and throat white ; breast and all the remain- 
