_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
ALCYONE AZUREA.
Azure Kingsfisher.
_Alcedo azurea_, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. xxxii.—Lewin, Birds of New
Holl., pl. 1.—Swains. Zool. Ill., pl. 26.
_Alcedo tribrachys_, Shaw, Nat. Misc., pl. 681.—Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nd
edit., p. lxxxviii.
_Tri-digitated Kingsfisher_, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 105.
_Azure Kingsfisher_, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. Add., p. 372.—Ib.
Gen. Hist., vol. iv. p. 61.
_Ceyx azurea_, Jard. and Selb. Ill. Orn., vol. ii. pl. 55. fig.
1.—Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 208.
_Alcyone Australis_, Swains. Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 336.
_Ceyx cyanea_, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 241.—Ib. Man. d’Orn., tom. ii.
p. 96.
_Alcyone azurea_, G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd edit. p. 14.
With the exception of Swan River, every colony of Australia, from Port
Essington on the north-west to Van Diemen’s Land in the extreme south,
is inhabited by Azure Kingsfishers; but as they, although closely
allied, constitute at least three species, the present page must
necessarily treat exclusively of the one that inhabits New South Wales
and South Australia, over the whole of which countries it is dispersed,
wherever brooks, ponds and other waters occur suitable to its habits and
mode of life. In size and in the brilliancy of its plumage, the Azure
Kingsfisher is intermediate between the species inhabiting the north
coast and that found in Van Diemen’s Land; although generically distinct
from the Kingsfisher of Europe (_Alcedo Ispida_), it has many characters
in common with that bird. It subsists almost exclusively on small fish
and aquatic insects, which it captures in the water by darting down from
some bare branch overhanging the stream, and to which it generally
returns to kill and devour its prey, which is swallowed entire and head
foremost, after the manner of the little favourite of our own island. It
is a solitary bird, a pair, and frequently only one, being found at the
same spot. During the breeding-season it becomes querulous and active,
and even pugnacious if any intruder of the same species should venture
within the precincts of its abode. The males at this season have great
confidence, and chase each other up and down the stream with arrow-like
quickness, the rich azure-blue of the back glittering in the sun, and
appearing more like a meteor as it darts by the spectator than a bird.
The task of incubation commences in August and terminates in January,
during which period two broods are frequently brought forth. The eggs,
which are of a beautiful pearly or pinkish white and rather round in
form, are deposited at the extremity of a hole, in a perpendicular or
shelving bank bordering the stream, without any nest being made for
their reception; they are from five to seven in number, three quarters
of an inch broad by seven-eighths of an inch long. The young at the
first moult assume the plumage of the adult, which is never afterwards
changed. The hole occupied by the bird is frequently almost filled up
with the bones of small fish, which are discharged from the throat and
piled up round the young in the form of a nest. Immediately on leaving
their holes the young follow the parents from one part of the brook to
another, and are fed by them while resting on some stone or branch near
the water’s edge; they soon, however, become able to obtain their own
food, and may be observed at a very early age plunging into the water to
a considerable depth to capture small fish and insects.
The sexes are precisely similar in the colouring of their plumage,
neither do they differ in size. The young are very clamorous, frequently
uttering their twittering cry as their parents pass and repass the
branch on which they are sitting.
All the upper surface and a patch on each side of the chest fine
ultramarine blue, becoming more vivid on the rump and upper
tail-coverts; on each side of the neck behind the ear-coverts a tuft of
yellowish white feathers; wings black; throat white, slightly washed
with buff; all the under surface, including the under side of the wing,
ferruginous orange, the flanks tinged with bluish lilac, giving them a
rich purple hue; line from the bill to the eye reddish orange; irides
and bill black; feet orange.
The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size.
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