The Living Animals of the World, Volume II: Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians, Fishes, Jointed Animals, Molluscs, etc.

As is the rule where both sexes are brilliantly coloured, this bird breeds in a hole, which in the present species is generally excavated in the bank of a stream, but sometimes in an old gravel-pit or chalk-pit, a mile or even more from the water. Occasionally the crumbling soil isunder the roots of an old tree affords sufficient shelter. No nest is made, although what equivalent to a nest is ultimately formed from the bird's habit of ejecting the indigestible parts of its food on to the floor of the space in which the eggs are laid. In course of time this becomes a cup- shaped structure; but whether, as Professor Newton remarks, by the pleasure of the bird or the moisture of the soil, or both, is unknown. With care the nest may be removed entire, but the slightest jar reduces the whole to the collection of fish-bones and crustacean skeletons of which it was originally composed. There is a tradition, not yet extinct, to the effect that these " nests " are of great pecuniary value, and scarcely a year passes without the authorities at the British Museum being offered such a treasure, at is approached by a tunnelprices varying from a few pounds to a hundred. The nest-chamber sloping upwards, and varying from 8 inches to 3 feet in length, terminating in a chamber some 6 inches in diameter, in which the eggs are laid. These, from six to eight in number, have a pure white, shining shell, tinged with a most exquisite pink colour, which is lost when the eggs are blown. The young seem to be reared under very unsanitary conditions, for the ejected fish-bones and other hard parts are not reserved entirely for the nest, but gradually distributed along

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the tunnel approaching it; later, fish brought for the young, but dropped on the way, and the fluid excreta of the parents are added, forming a dripping, fetid mass swarming with maggots. The young, on leaving the nest, are at first tenderly fed and cared for by the parents, but towards the end of the summer seem to be driven away to seek new fishing-grounds for themselves.

Of the many legends that have grown up around this bird, some are well worth repeating. Specially interesting is one related by Professor Newton on the authority of the French naturalist Holland. This has it that the kingfisher was originally a plain grey bird, and acquired its present bright colours by flying towards the sun on its liberation from Noah's ark, when its upper-surface assumed the hue of the sky above it, and its lower plumage was scorched by the heat of the setting sun to the tint it now bears. Not a few virtues were also attributed to this bird. Its dried body would, it was believed, avert thunder-bolts, or, kept in a wardrobe, preserve from moths the woollen stuffs contained therein, whilst, hung by a thread from the ceiling of a room, it would serve like the more conventional weathercock to point the direction of the prevailing wind.

Persecuted though it is, the kingfisher is by no means a rare bird in England, and it by the banks of some slowly flowing stream or lake,those who will may generally see or even shallow brook, sometimes even by the seashore. It feeds upon small aquatic insects and Crustacea and small fishes, sometimes even, it is said, upon leeches. Perched on some bough overhanging the water, or stump or railing on the bank, it watches patiently, silent and motionless. The moment its prey comes within striking distance it plunges down upon it, its capture in itsdisappearing for a moment beneath the surface, to appear the next with beak. If this be a fish, it is held crosswise, and borne upwards to the station from which the plunge was made, there to be stunned by a few sharp blows, tossed into the air, dexterously caught, and swallowed head-foremost. At times, however, perhaps when hunger presses, more activity in the capture of food is displayed, the bird hovering suspended over the water, after the custom of the kestrel-hawk.

Although essentially fish-eating birds, a considerable number live far removed from water, obtaining a livelihood by the capture of insects in forest regions, whilst some appear to feed mainly on reptiles. These are known as Wood-kingfishers, to distinguish them from the Water-kingfishers, the typical member of which group has been just described.

Of the WOOD-KINGFISHERS, or KINGHUNTERS, as they are also called, the most beautiful are the KACKET-TAILED KING- FISHERS, so called from the fact that the two middle tail-feathers are produced into two long rods, terminating in a spoon-shaped enlargement. Although represented by no less than twenty distinct species, they have a somewhat limited range, being found only in the Moluccas, New Guinea, and Northern Australia. One of the handsomest of all is the one occurring in Amboina, an island in the Malay Archi- photo by scholastic piwto. [Parson's Green. pelago, where it was discovered LAUGHING-KINGFISHERS. This species has comparatively dull-coloured plumage.by Mr. A. K. Wallace. The

of the World502 The Living Animals

bill, he tells us, is coral-red, the under-surface pure white, the back and wings deep purple, while the shoulders, head, and nape, and some spots on the upper part of the back and wings, are pure azure-blue. The tail is white, narrowly edged with blue. These birds live upon insects and small land-mollusca, which they dart down upon and pick up from the ground just as the fish-eating species pick up a fish. Of the forest-haunting species, however, the best known is probably the large and, for a kingfisher, dull-coloured LAUGHING-JACKASS, or SETTLER'S CLOCK, of Australia. Its food is of a very mixed character small mammals, reptiles, insects, and crabs being devoured with equal relish. Since it is not seldom to be seen bearing off a snake in its bill, it may be regarded as a useful bird supposing, of course, the snake to be of Photo by C. N. Mavroyeni] [Smyrna. a poisonous variety. A good idea of KINGFISHER. of this species.the bird in its native haunts is given The photograph shows the nature of the favourite haunts by the late Mr. Wheelwright. " About an hour before sunrise," he writes, " the bushman is awakened by the most discordant sounds, as if a troop of fiends were shouting, whooping, and laughing around him in one wild chorus. This is the morning song of the ' laughing-jackass,' warning his feathered mates that daybreak is heard, and as the sun sinks into the west itis at hand. At noon the same wild laugh again rings through the forest. I shall never forget the first night I slept in the open bush in this country. It was in the Black Forest. I woke about daybreak after a confused sleep, and for some minutes I could not remember where I was, such were the extraordinary sounds that : the fiendish laugh of the jackass, the clear, flute-like notes of the magpie,greeted my ears the hoarse cackle of the wattle-birds... and the screaming of thousands of parrots as they clashed through the forest, all giving chorus, formed one of the most extraordinary concerts I have ever heard, and seemed, at the moment, to have been got up for the purpose of welcoming the stranger to this land of wonders on that eventful morning. I have heard it hundreds of times since, but never with the same feelings that I listened to it then. The laughing-jackass is the bushman's clock, and being by no means shy, of a companionable nature, and a constant attendant on the bush-tent and a destroyer of snakes, is regarded, like the robin at home, as a sacred bird in the Australian forests. It is an uncouth-looking bird ... nearly the size of a crow, of a rich chestnut-brown and dirty white colour, the wings slightly chequered with light blue, after the manner of the British jay. The tail-feathers are is a common bird in all the forestlong, rather pointed, and barred with brown.... It throughout the year, breeds in the hole of a tree, and the eggs are white."

Whilst the Kingfishers are remarkable for the wondrous beauty of their coloration, the HORNBILLS, their allies, attract our attention rather by the grotesqueness of their shape, due to the enormous size of the bill, and the still more remarkable horny excrescences which surmount in some of theit in not a few species, forming what is known as a " casque." Absent smaller and possibly more primitive forms, its gradual development may be traced, beginning

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with a series of corrugations along the ridge of the base of the bill, gradually increasing, to form, in the most extreme cases, huge superstructures of quaint shapes, and apparently of great solidity. As a matter of fact, however, these casques are practically hollow, save in the case of the HELMET-HORNBILL of the Malay countries, in which the horny sheath is backed by solid supports of bone, whilst the front of the sheath itself is of great thickness and surprising density, and is used by the natives for carving and making brooches and other ornaments. for such it may possibly be is unknown.The use of this powerful hammer

Hornbills are forest-birds, feeding upon fruit and insects, the latter being captured on bill and wings, a long tail, and a relatively small body and shortthe wing. With large legs, they are rather unwieldy birds, and yet, for many reasons, unusually interesting. Their nesting habits are unique, and quite worth recounting here at some length. Of the many accounts, one of the most interesting, as well as one of the latest, is that of Mr. Charles Hose, of Borneo. "The nest," he writes, "is always built in the hollow of a large tree the hollow, be it noted, being always due to disease of the tree or the ravages of termites, not to the personal labours of the birds. The bottom of this cavity is often plugged by a termites' nest and accumulation of decayed wood, and on the upper surface of this is made the nest, a very rough-and-ready structure, composed simply of the feathers of the female. The hollow of the tree communicates with the exterior air by means of a long aperture, which, just before the period of incubation, is closed up almost entirely by the male, simply leaving a long slit open, up and down which the beak of the enclosed female can move. The substance used in thus is probably composed of aclosing the aperture closely resembles some vegetable resin, and gastric secretion, combined with the woody fragments of fruit. It should be noticed that this slit is always in close proximity to the nest, so that the female can easily protrude her beak

Photo by W. Reid] [ Wishaw, N.B. LAUGHING-JACKASS. Frequently known as the Settler's Clock.

for food without moving from her sitting position. During incubation the male bird supplies the female with food in the form of pellets of fruit, seeds, insects, portions of reptiles, etc., the pellets being enclosed each in a skin of rubber-like consistency. While feeding the female, the male clings to the bark of the tree, or sits on a branch if conveniently near, and jerks these pellets into the gaping beak of the hen, two to four pellets forming a meal. During mastication (for it is a mistake to suppose that the hornbills always bolt their food entire) some fragments of the pellets fall to the ground, and seeds which these fragments may contain take root, germinate, and sprout, and the natives can judge approximately of the date of incubation by the age of the seedlings. When these are four-leaved, the eggs have been hatched out for two or three weeks. At this stage, though not always so early, the mother bird leaves the nest, breaking down the gluey substance with her beak to effect an exit;