. The royal natural history. he total length is 5i inches. This pretty little Inrd inhabits the forest-districtsof Southern India and Ceylon, and is found from Xipal eastwaids through tlieBurmese countries down the ]\Ialayan Peninsula. ^Ir. Stuart Baker status that itis fairly common in Kachar, and is more of a fish-eater than the Malayan specieswhich are forest-birds, living chiefly on insects. This kingfisher, indeed, lives 76 FJCARIAN BIRDS. chiefly on flsh and water insects, with an occasional shrimp or fresh-water cry is a shrill, piping note, not unlike that of the common kingf
. The royal natural history. he total length is 5i inches. This pretty little Inrd inhabits the forest-districtsof Southern India and Ceylon, and is found from Xipal eastwaids through tlieBurmese countries down the ]\Ialayan Peninsula. ^Ir. Stuart Baker status that itis fairly common in Kachar, and is more of a fish-eater than the Malayan specieswhich are forest-birds, living chiefly on insects. This kingfisher, indeed, lives 76 FJCARIAN BIRDS. chiefly on flsh and water insects, with an occasional shrimp or fresh-water cry is a shrill, piping note, not unlike that of the common kingfisher, but shrillerand less powerful, and not apparently uttered except on the wing. It has a \&vjpowerful flight, and is capable of great speed, darting along the stream like a rubymeteor. Even when the bird is not disturbed, but is merely moving from placeto place, its flight is very swift. When it feeds, it returns again and again to thesame perch, and keeps to a confined area, being found day after day about the same. LAUGHING KINGFISHER (| nat. size spot, from which it seldom flies more than a mile. Mr. Baker has watched thebirds making their tunnel into a sandy bank, and believes that the earth is peckedaway by the birds bill and the sand ejected by a backward motion of its feet. Laughing Inhabitants of Australia and the Papuan Islands, these birds are Kmgflsiiers. ]3gg^ known by the laughing kingfisher (Dacelo glgantea), or laughing-jackass, as it is termed by the Australian settlers, which is a large bird, measuring*17 inches in total length, with a wing of 8^, and a tail of 6h inches. The generalcolour is brown, with the lower back greenish blue; the median wing-coverts KINGFISHERS. 77 being also washed with greenish bhie ; while the head is strongly crested brown incolour with rufous frecklings on the fore-part, and the long crest-feathers edgedwith white. There is a very broad white eyebrow extending l^ackwards andjoining a collar on the neck; the tail is rufous with
Size: 1512px × 1653px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booksubjectzoology
