78 
PICARIAN BIRDS. 
diet, the principal part of which consists of locusts and crickets; and these it takes 
by swooping down on them from some perch, as if diving after fish, and seizing 
them from the bushes and grass, without halting in its flight. It also captures 
prawns, small crabs, and water insects from stagnant pools, and he has once or 
twice seen it take cicalas from the trunk of a tree. These kingfishers are very 
plentiful in Africa, one of the most beautiful species being the African white¬ 
breasted kingfisher ( H . semiccerulea), which has an entirely red bill, and is easily 
AFRICAN WHITE-BREASTED KINGFISHER (f nat. size). 
distinguished by its ashy white head and chestnut breast and under wing-coverts; 
the back being black, with the lower part bright blue, while the outer surfaces of the 
wings and tail are blue; and the throat and chest ashy white like the head. The 
length of the bird is about 8 inches, and the wing 4 inches. This species is found 
over the greater part of Africa, as far as the Zanzibar district on the east, and 
to Angola on the west, being replaced in Southern Africa by an allied species 
(H. pallidiventris), and by H. erythrogaster in the Cape Verde Islands. Von 
Hueglin states that in North-Eastern Africa he found the present species both near 
