ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLERS AND THEIR ALLIES
THE KINGFISHERS
Pied Kingfishers
Of wholly different appearance, which has won for them the collective name of Pied Kingfishers, are the five Old World members of the genus. Of these the true Pied Kingfisher (C. rudis) is perhaps best known, being widely distributed from Asia Minor to the Persian Gulf, Palestine, Egypt, and tropical Africa. About eleven inches in length, it has a conspicuously crested head, the plumage above being black marked and varied with white, while the under parts are pure white with the breast crossed in the male with two, and in the female by a single, black band.”Its flight,”says Mr. Dresser,”is not very swift, but direct and steadied by regular beats of the wings. It frequents both inland waters and the seacoast, and is gregarious at all seasons,”breeding in April or May in holes excavated in banks along streams and laying four to six eggs.
Similar to this but a little larger and having more distinct black malar lines is the Varied Kingfisher (C. varia) of the Indian peninsula, Ceylon, and China, while to the northward in the Himalayas, the Burmese provinces, and Japan occurs the Himalayan Spotted Kingfisher (C. guttata), which is a very wild, shy bird, usually seen in pairs and extremely difficult of approach. It feeds exclusively on fish, for which it watches from a bush or bough overhanging the water, and nests in banks, laying only three or four glossy eggs. The remaining species are African.
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