File:A monograph of the Alcedinidae (19645230710).jpg

but as thev, although closely allied, constitute at least three distinct species, the present
nafire must necessarily treat exclusively of the one that inhabits New South Wales and South
Australia, over the whole of which countries it is dispersed, wherever brooks, ponds, and
other waters occur suitable to its habits and mode of life. In size and in brilliancy of
plumage, the Azure Kingfisher is intermediate between the species inhabiting the North
Coast and that found in Tasmania; although generically distinct from the Kingfisher of
Europe it has many characters in common with that bird. It subsists almost exclusively
on small fish and aquatic insects, which it captures in the water by darting down from some
bare branch overhanging the stream, and to which it generally returns to kill and devour
its prey, which is swallowed entire and head foremost, after the manner of the little
favourite of our own island. It is a solitary bird, a pair, and frequently only one, being
found at the same spot. During the breeding- season it becomes querulous and active, and
even pugnacious if any intruder of the same species should venture within the precincts of
its abode. The males at this season chase each other up and down the stream with arrow-
like quickness, when, the rich azure-blue of the back glittering in the sun, they appear
more like meteors, as they dart by the spectator, than birds. The task of incubation
commences in August and terminates in January, during which period two broods are
usually brought forth. The eggs, which are of a beautiful pearly or pinkish white and
rather round in form, are deposited at the extremity of a hole, in a perpendicular or
shelving bank bordering the stream, without any nest being made for their reception; they
are from five to seven in number, three quarters of an inch broad by seven-eighths of an
inch long. The young at the first moult assume the plumage of the adult which is never
afterwards changed. The hole occupied by the bird is frequently almost filled up with the
bones of small fish, which are discharged from the throat and piled up round the young in
the form of a nest. Immediately on leaving their holes the young follow their parents
from one part of the brook to another, and are fed by them while resting on some stone or
branch near the water's edge ; they soon, however, become able to obtain their own food,
and may be observed at a very early age plunging into the water to a considerable depth
to capture small fish and insects."
" The sexes are precisely similar in the colouring of their plumage, neither do they
differ in size. The young are very clamorous, frequently uttering their twittering cry as
their parents pass and repass the branch on which they are sitting.
Mr. E. P. Ramsay has very kindly forwarded me the following interesting particulars
respecting the habits of the present species : —
" Now while all the members of the genus Todiramphus are strictly land Kingfishers,
all the members of the genus Alcyone have just the opposite habits, being always found in
the vicinity of water ; they love to dwell on the sides of creeks and rivers, either salt or
fresh. The present species is abundant in all parts of New South Wales, wherever water
is to be found ; they spend their time in watching for their prey from the branches overhang-
ing the water-holes, creeks and rivers, edges of lakes and lagoons ; in fact, wherever the trees
along the water's edge afford them shelter, and the denser the foliage, the better they are
pleased. They are very expert in catching fish, and plunge deeply into the water, some-
tinu's completely under the surface. A pair have resorted for many successive breed ing-
seasons to a water-hole on the Dobroyde Estate, where they have tunnelled in the bank of
soft clay, and they often occupy the same hole for several years in succession. The eggs
are five in number, "9 inches long by '75 inches broad, round and pearly white, laid upon a
floor of fish-bones, scales, and remains of coleptera; I have taken two good handfulls out
of their nest on several occasions. The tunnel is usually from 20 to 30 inches long, 2£
to 3 inches wide, and the chamber at the end about 5 inches in diameter. I differ from Mr.
Gould in considering that the debris found in the nest of this species has been ' discharged
from the throat and piled up round the young,' from the simple fact that time bones and