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KINGFISHER (Ger.' Konigsfischer; Wall...

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 809 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KINGFISHER (Ger.' Konigsfischer; Walloon Roi-peheux= pecheur) , the Alcedo ispida of ornithologists, one of the most beautiful and well-known of See also:European birds, being found, though nowhere very abundantly, in every European See also:country, as well as in See also:North See also:Africa and See also:South-Western See also:Asia as far as Sindh. Its See also:blue-See also:green back and See also:rich See also:chestnut See also:breast render it conspicuous as it frequents the streams and ponds whence it procures its See also:food, by plunging almost perpendicularly into the See also:water, and emerging a moment after with the See also:prey—whether a small See also:fish, crustacean, or an aquatic See also:insect—it has captured. In hard frosts it resorts ' But more commonly called Eisvogel, which finds its counterpart in the Anglo-Saxon Isern or Isen.to the See also:sea-See also:shore, but a severe See also:winter is sure to occasion a See also:great mortality in the See also:species, for many of its individuals seem unable to reach the tidal See also:waters where only in such a See also:season they could obtain sustenance; and to this cause rather than any other is perhaps to be ascribed its See also:general scarcity. Very See also:early in the See also:year it prepares its See also:nest, which is at the end of a See also:tunnel bored by itself in a See also:bank, and therein the six or eight See also:white, glossy, translucent eggs are laid, sometimes on the See also:bare See also:soil, but often on the fishbones which, being indigestible, are thrown up in pellets by the birds; and, in any See also:case, before See also:incubation is completed these rejectamenta accumulate so as to See also:form a See also:pretty See also:cup-shaped structure that increases in bulk after the See also:young are hatched, but, mixed with their fluid excretions and with decaying fishes brought for their support, soon becomes a dripping fetid See also:mass. The kingfisher is the subject of a variety of legends and superstitions, both classical and See also:medieval. Of the latter one of the most curious is that having been originally a See also:plain See also:grey See also:bird it acquired its See also:present See also:bright See also:colours by flying towards the See also:sun on its liberation from See also:Noah's See also:ark, when its upper See also:surface assumed the See also:hue of the See also:sky above it and its See also:lower plumage was scorched by the See also:heat of the setting See also:orb to the tint it now bears.2 More than this, the kingfisher was supposed to possess many virtues. Its dried See also:body would avert thunderbolts, and if kept in a See also:ward-robe would preserve from moths the woollen stuffs therein laid, or hung by a See also:thread to the See also:ceiling of a chamber would point with its See also:bill to the See also:quarter whence the See also:wind blew. All readers of See also:Ovid (Metam., bk. xi.) know how the faithful but unfortunate Ceyx and See also:Alcyone were changed into kingfishers—birds which bred at the winter See also:solstice, when through the See also:influence of See also:Aeolus, the wind-See also:god and See also:father of the fond wife, all See also:gales were hushed and the sea calmed so that their floating nest might ride uninjured over the waves during the seven proverbial " Halcyon days "; while a variant or further development of the See also:fable assigned to the halcyon itself the See also:power of quelling storms? The See also:common kingfisher of See also:Europe is the representative of a well-marked See also:family of birds, the Alcedinidae or Halcyonidae of ornithologists, which is considered by most authorities 4 to be closely related to the Bucerotidae (see See also:HORNBILL); but the See also:affinity can scarcely be said as yet to be proved. Be that as it may, the present family forms the subject of an important See also:work by See also:Bowdler See also:Sharpe.5 Herein are described one See also:hundred and twenty-five species, nearly all of them being beautifully figured by Keulemans, and that number may be taken even now as approximately correct; for, while the validity of a few has been denied by some eminent men, nearly as many have since been made known, and it seems likely that two or three more described by older writers may yet be rediscovered. These one hundred and twenty-five species Sharpe See also:groups in nineteen genera, and divides into two sub-families, Alcedininae and Daceloninae,6 the one containing five and the other fourteen genera. With existing anatomical materials perhaps no better arrangement could have been made, but the method afterwards published by Sundevall (Tentamen, pp.

95, 96) differs from it not inconsiderably. Here, however, it will be convenient to follow Sharpe. Externally, which is almost all we can at present say, kingfishers present a great uniformity of structure. One of their most remarkable features is the feebleness of their feet, and the See also:

union (syndactylism) of the third and See also:fourth digits for the greater See also:part of their length; while, as if still 2 See also:Rolland, Faune populaire de la See also:France, ii. 74. 3 In many of the islands of the Pacific Ocean the prevalent See also:king-See also:fisher is the See also:object of much veneration. 4 Cf. Eyton, Contrib. See also:Ornithology (185o), p. 8o; See also:Wallace, See also:Ann. Nat. See also:History, See also:series 2, vol. xviii. pp.

201, 205; and See also:

Huxley, Proc. Zool. Society (1867), p. 467. 5A Monograph of the Alcedinidae or Family of the Kingfishers, by R. B. Sharpe, 4t0 (ondon, 1868-1871). Some important anatomical points were briefly noticed by See also:Professor See also:Cunningham (Prot. Zeal. See also:Soc., 187o, p. 28o). 5 The name of this latter sub-family as constituted by Sharpe would seem to be more correctly Ceycinae—the genus Ceyx, founded in 1801 by Lacepede, being the See also:oldest included in it.

The word Dacelo, invented by Leach in 1815, is simply an See also:

anagram of Alcedo, and, though of course without any etymological meaning, has been very generally adopted. further to show the comparatively functionless See also:character of these members, in two of the genera, Alcyone and Ceyx, the second See also:digit is aborted, and the birds have but three toes. In most forms the bill does not differ much from that of the common Alcedo ispida, but in Sym¢ its edges are serrated, while in Carcineutes, Dacelo and Melidora the maxilla is prolonged, becoming in the last a very pronounced See also:hook. Generally the wings are See also:short and rounded, and the tail is in many forms inconspicuous; but in Tanysipiera, one of the most beautiful groups, the See also:middle pair of feathers is greatly elongated and spatulate, while this genus possesses only ten rectrices, all the See also:rest having twelve. Sundevall relies on a character not noticed by Sharpe, and makes his See also:principal divisions depend on the See also:size of the scapulars, which in one form a See also:mantle, and in the other are so small as not to See also:cover the back. The Alcedinidae are a See also:cosmopolitan family, but only one genus, Ceryle, is found in See also:America, and that extends as well over a great part of the Old See also:World, though not into the Australian region, which affords by far the greater number both of genera and species, having no fewer than ten of the former and fifty-nine of the latter See also:peculiar to it.' In habits kingfishers display considerable diversity, though all, it would seem, have it in common to sit at times motionless on the See also:watch for their prey, and on its See also:appearance to dart upon it, seize it as they See also:fly or dive, and return to a See also:perch where it may be conveniently swallowed. But some species, and especially that which is the type of the family, are not always content to await at rest their victim's showing itself. They will hover like a See also:hawk over the waters that conceal it, and, in the manner already described, precipitate themselves upon it. This is particularly the way with those that are fishers in fact as well as in name; but no inconsiderable number live almost entirely in forests, feeding on See also:insects, while See also:reptiles furnish the See also:chief sustenance of others. The last is characteristic of at least one Australian form, which manages to thrive in the driest districts of that country, where not a drop of water is to be found for See also:miles, and the See also:air is at times heated to a degree that is insupportable by most animals. The belted kingfisher of North America, Ceryle See also:ale yen, is a characteristic bird of that country, though its habits greatly resemble those of the European species; and the so-called " laughing jackass " of New South See also:Wales and South See also:Australia, Dacelo gigas—with its kindred forms, D. leachi, D. cervina and D. occidentalis, from other parts of the country—deserve See also:special mention. See also:Attention must also be called to the speculations of Dr Bowdler Sharpe (op. cit., pp. xliv.–xlvii.) on the genetic affinity of the various forms of Alcedinidae, and it is to be regretted that hitherto no See also:light has been See also:shed by palaeontologists on this interesting subject, for the only fossil referred to the neighbourhood of the family is the Halcyornis toliapicus of See also:Sir R.

See also:

Owen (Br. See also:Foss. Mamm. and Birds, p. 554) from the See also:Eocene of See also:Sheppey—the very specimen said to have been previously placed by See also:Konig (See also:Icon. foss. sectiles, fig. 1S3) in the genus Larus. (A.

End of Article: KINGFISHER (Ger.' Konigsfischer; Walloon Roi-peheux= pecheur)

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