THE KINGFISHERS. 
63 
eating Kingfishers, there are several which have a short tail 
like the true Akedininm, and yet live in forests and never feed 
on fish. 
The palate is bridged, or desmognathous ; there are no 
basipterygoid processes ; the hallux, or first hind-toe, is con- 
nected with the flexor perforans digiiortwt, and the sole of 
Ventral aspect of the bill of the Giant Kingfisher (Dacelo gigas), to show 
the desmognathous palate. [From the Catalogue of Osteological Specimens 
in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.] Letters as before. 
the foot is flat, the front toes being ui.ited together for the 
greater part of their extent — hence the birds are Anisodaclyle. 
The eggs are white and hidden from sight, as with other 
Picarian Birds, being mostly deposited in the hole of a bank or 
tree. The young are hatched naked, but the feathers are 
developed in well-marked lines or “ tracts,” and are for a long 
time enclosed in the sheath, imparting a singularly bristly 
appearance to the nestling (see p. 34). 
Of the Insect-eating Kingfishers, of which we have no re- 
presentatives in the northern parts of the world, the nearest 
allies to our own Kingfisher are the African genus Ispidina, 
and the Indian and Moluccan genus Ceyx, the latter having only 
three toes. The large genus Halcyon, consisting of bush- and 
forest-frequenting birds, is widely spread over Africa, India, 
