HALCYON FUSCA.
In d ian Kingfisher.
Martin-pêcheur de la côte de Malabar, Buff.‘Pl. Enl., 894.
Alcedofusca, Bodd. Tabl. Pl. Enl., p. 51. t. 894.
— smyrnensis var. y, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 457.—Lath. Ind. O r a , yoL i. p. 248—Vieffl.
Encyc. Méth. p art i. p. 286, var. a.
Daceh smyrnensis, Less. Traité d’O m , p. 246,-Sykes, Proc. of Comm, of Soi. and Corr. of ZooL Son, part i t
P' Mr M Clell. in Proc. of Zool. Soc, p art vii. p. 156.—Jerd. Madras Journ. Lit. and Sci. 1840,
p. 230.—Pears. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. 1841, p. 633.—Gray, Cat. of Spec, and Draw, of Mamm.
and Birds presented to Brit. Mus. by B. H. Hodgson, E sq , p. 47.
Halcyonfnsca, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 79, Halcyon, sp. 12—Gray, List of Birds in CoU. B rit
Mus, p art ii. p. 55.—Bonap. Consp. Gen. Ay, p. 155, Halcyon, sp. 23.—Cass. Cat. of Hale, in CoU.
Acad. Sci. Philad, p. 8. sp. 3—Horsf. and Moore, Cat. of Birds in Mus. E. I. Comp, rol. i. p. 125.
Entomotherafusca, Reich. Handb., i. p. 12. 32. t. 404. 3088-89.
Alcedo erythrorhyncha, Licbt. in Mus. Berol.
Entomobiafusca, Cab. Mus. Hein., Theil ii. p. 155.
Halcyon Smyrnensis, Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 47.—Layard in Ann. and Mag. Nat.
Hist., vol. xii. 2nd ser. p. 172.—Burgess in Proc. of Zool. Soc., partxxiii. p. 28.
Killcila of the Hindoos, Jerdon.
Sada-bak Match-ranga of the Bengalese, Blyth, and Dr. F. B. Hamilton.
Matsya-ranga, in Sanscrit, Wilson.
Calavy Cooroovi, Mai. ; lit. Large-mouthed Bird Layard.
S ome ornithologists are of opinion that the Halcyon of Asia Minor is specifically distinct from the one figured
on the accompanying Plate, which is so very generally distributed over the whole of India that it has had
the trivial name of the Indian Kingfisher bestowed upon it. Now the only differences which I am able to
detect between it and the Smyrna bird, are a slight variation in size and in brilliancy of colouring, the Indian
species being somewhat smaller and more intense and beautiful in colour.
The Halcyon fusca is found in all parts of the Indian Peninsula, Assam, Aracan, Tenasserim, and Ceylon;
and I have also seen specimens from Siam.
Captain Burgess informs us that “ this Kingfisher is one of the most common of its tribe in the Deccan,
frequenting almost every stream and nullah. It breeds during the month of May, in holes of the banks of
rivers, laying as many as seven eggs, of a beautiful pinky tinge, owing to the colour of the yelk showing
through the thin delicate shell.”
“ This,” says Mr. Jerdon, “ is the most common and generally spread of the Indian Kingfishers, frequenting
not only the rivers and brooks, tanks, wells, and wet paddy-fields, but also dry cultivated ground,
groves, old walls, and many other similar situations. It preys upon small fish (which it pursues below
the surface), frogs, tadpoles, and various water insects ; also on small lizards, grasshoppers, and various
other large insects. It has a very loud, harsh, rattling scream, generally uttered during flight. Is said to
breed in holes on the banks of rivers.”
Mr. Layard states that in Ceylon this bird is “ very common and widely distributed, feeding indiscriminately
on fresh- or salt-water fish, crabs, beetles, and butterflies. I have seen them capture these last in
the manner of Flycatchers (Muscicapidas), darting from a sprig, and seizing them in the air, their mandibles
closing with a snap, audible at the distance of some yards. One, which was unluckily introduced into an
aviary, destroyed most of the lesser captives ere he was detected as the culprit; he was at last caught in
the act of seizing a small bird in his powerful bill; he beat it for a moment against his perch, and then
swallowed it whole. The nest of this species is found in decaying trees ; the parent bird deposits two
white eggs Qtxis 15 lines, diam. 13 lines), beautifully smooth and shining. I have procured eggs in the
north of the island in December, in the south in April.”
Head, cheeks, sides and back of the neck, edges of the shoulders, under coverts of the wing, flanks,
abdomen, vent, under tail-coverts and thighs dark chestnut-brown ; centre of the back and scapularies dull
green washed with verditer blue; lower part of the back and upper tail-coverts fine verditer blue; greater
wing-coverts black, the lowermost row tipped with deep green ; spurious wing green ; basal portion of the
outer webs of the primaries pale green, passing into deeper green, basal portion of their inner webs white ;
the apical half of both webs deep black; secondaries bluish green on their external webs, black on the
inner; tail deep green, glossed with blue above, brownish black beneath; chin, throat, and centre of the
breast white; irides hazel; bill, legs, and feet deep orange-red.
The Plate is intended to represent both sexes of the size of life; it will be seen, therefore, that they do
not differ in their colouring. The climbing plant is the Otostemma lacunosa.