io6 
PICTURES OF BIRD LIFE. 
sufficiently near to come within the sweep of their wings. If unsuccessful in their 
first attack, they do not pursue their game, but return again to their post, and 
patiently wait for another luckless straggler. If their first attack is successful, they 
return with their victim to the same station, and then proceed to swallow it.” 
Among the more marked members of the Kingfisher family may be named the 
well-known Laughing Jackass of Australia and the Sacred Kingfisher of Otaheite, 
which lives on the insects attracted by the honeyed blossoms of the cocoa-nut. It 
frequents the cocoa-nut trees, and is some eight inches long, with a crest like a hood 
of brownish-green feathers, and throat, breast, and all the upper part of the body 
pure white. The wings are bluish-green, while brown and chestnut predominate in 
the rest of its plumage. The Giant Kingfisher of Senegal is another fine specimen 
of the family, but is modestly dressed in black and white, with a red neck and 
breast. It is far outshone in brilliancy of plumage by the Tanysiptera dea of 
India. The feathers of this bird are sky-blue and white, and two long blue feathers, 
with white club-shaped ends, depend from its tail. The Swallow-tailed Kingfisher 
is another and still more gorgeous bird, found in Surinam. Its colour is golden- 
green, with a violet-brown head, and throat, neck, and lesser wing-coverts white. It 
is sometimes known as the Paradise Jacamar. Our own Kingfisher may be com¬ 
pared not disadvantageous^ even with these Oriental birds. Its head and wing- 
coverts are bluish-green spotted with azure-blue, its back is also of this latter colour; 
under and behind the eye is a reddish band passing into white, and beneath it another 
band of azure-green. Its wings and tail are azure-blue, throat white, under plumage 
orange-red. It is about seven and a half inches long; and as the rambler by some 
secluded brook catches a glimpse of it darting down a reach at his approach, it 
glitters and flashes in beautifully iridescent shades of emerald and azure where the 
sunshine falls on it. On such an occasion it is the only bird that exhibits some 
show of tropical splendour under our own grey skies. Its beauty, however, has too 
often proved its destruction ; and the Kingfisher, though generally diffused, save in 
the northern parts of Scotland (it has been found, however, in Skye), is nowhere a 
common bird. It frequents running streams for the most part, especially those over¬ 
hung with trees and bushes, but is occasionally found on large ponds or pieces of 
water. In winter it migrates to the coast. The female resembles the male, but her 
bill is shorter and her prevailing colour green rather than blue. Small fish, such as 
sticklebacks and minnows, form the chief food of the Kingfisher, but it condescends 
to eat fish-spawn, slugs, and leeches. Its usual mode of fishing is to sit as im¬ 
movable on some overhanging twig as the heron stands at the brink of a stream, 
