Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS

THE ROLLERS AND THEIR ALLIES

THE KINGFISHERS

Stork-billed Kingfishers

Agreeing with the genus Ceryle in having the tail longer than the bill, but differing in having the sexes similar j in plumage, are the dozen or more species of Pelargopsis, which from the very large, sharp-pointed bill have appropriately obtained the collective name of Stork-billed Kingfishers. Confined to the Oriental region from the Indian peninsula and Ceylon to Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Philippines and Celebes, they are further distinguished by having bright blue backs and with a single exception coral-red bills; in length they are between twelve and fourteen inches. As one of the best-known we may select the Indian Stork-billed Kingfisher (P. gurial), a rather handsome bird, the head dark chocolate-brown, the sides of the neck and neck-collar pale ochre, while the wings and upper back are dull green, the remainder of the back a rich greenish cobalt, and the entire under surface ochreous buff.

Of the three remaining genera of the subfamily, in all of which the bill is longer than the tail, the genus Alcedo is widespread over the Old World, with the exception of Australia and Polynesia, one of the best-known being the little European Kingfisher (^4. ispida), which ranges throughout Europe and Asia and thence over the Indian and Malay peninsulas to the Philippines.

About seven inches long, it is azure-blue above and rusty orange-red beneath. It is the only Kingfisher, except an occasional rare straggler, which reaches the British Islands, where it is looked upon as the most brilliantly colored bird visiting that country.

Formerly abundant, it was much persecuted and seemed likely to be entirely driven out, but in later years it has been more or less protected and has again become tolerably common. It has habits very similar to those of our Belted Kingfisher, frequenting streams and rivers, the margins of lakes and, more rarely, the seashore. It feeds mainly on fish,but also on tadpoles, water insects, and occasional crustaceans, the latter especially in the fall, as it frequents the seaside before migrating.

The nesting site is a burrow in a bank usually near water but sometimes at a distance of a mile or more. The eggs, six to eight in number, are placed on a bed of fish bones in a nest cavity some six inches in diameter at the termination of the hole.

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