THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
distress. It sits very upright, generally perching on a small dead branch 
for hours together, merely flying down to capture its prey, and in most 
instances returning again to the site it has just left. Its food is of a 
very mixed character, and varies with the nature of the localities it inhabits. 
It greedily devours mantes, grasshoppers, caterpillars, lizards, and very 
small snakes, all of which are swallowed whole, the latter being killed 
by beating their heads against a stone or other hard substance, after the 
manner of the Common Kingfisher. Specimens killed in the neighbourhood 
of salt-marshes had their stomachs literally crammed with crabs and other 
crustaceous animals ; while intent on the capture of which it may be 
observed sitting silently on the low mangrove-bushes skirting the pools 
which every receding tide leaves either dry or with a surface of wet mud, 
upon which crabs are to be found in abundance. I have never seen it 
plunge like the true Kingfishers, and I believe it never resorts to that 
mode of obtaining its prey. On the banks of the Hunter its most 
favourite food is the larvae of a species of ant, which it procures by 
excavating holes in the nests of this insect, which are constructed around 
the boles and dead branches of the Eucalypti, and which resemble 
excrescences of the tree itself.” 
Mr. H. E. Hill is quoted in the Emu, Vol. II., p. 35, 1902, as giving 
the following item in some “Notes on the Birds of the Bendigo District, 
Victoria ” : “ In a bank of a gully I found a tunnel, which I thought 
belonged to a Pardalote, and while I was digging it out a Sacred King- 
fisher suddenly appeared, in a state of great agitation. On digging further 
I caught sight of the eggs, with the other bird crouched behind them, 
apparently in great fear. As she (it was probably the female) would 
not leave the nest, I had to put my hand in and lift her out, when she 
came without a struggle, and lay quite still in my hand for a moment 
before endeavouring to escape. The nest contained five fresh eggs on 
the bare earth.” Later he contributed an article to the Emu, and the 
same volume, p. 162, observed : “ Not very common anywhere, but to be 
seen occasionally in any part.” 
Campbell and White wrote up the “ Birds on the Capricorn Group ” {Emu, 
Vol. X., p. 197, 1910) and recorded : “ Some Kingfishers were noticed about 
the islands, similar to the ordinary Sacred species, but more brownish about 
the breast and flanks. Notwithstanding three struck the steamer’s lights 
one night as she was riding at anchor off the island (proving a migratory 
disposition), some of these birds remain to breed on the Capricorns, because 
a nest containing eggs was observed on North-West Island. The nesting- 
place was a hoUow limb of a Pisonia tree.” 
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