Part 5

The Sacred Halcyon does not inhabit Van Diemen’s Land, but is very generally dispersed over the Australian continent. I have specimens from nearly every locality: those from Port Essington on the north are precisely identical with those of the south coast; on the other hand, those inhabiting Western Australia are a trifle larger in all their measurements, but otherwise present no differences of sufficient importance to warrant their being considered as distinct.

It is a summer resident in New South Wales and throughout the southern portion of the continent, retiring northwards after the breeding-season. It begins to disappear in December, and by the end of January few are to be seen: solitary individuals may, however, be met with even in the depth of winter. They return again in spring, commencing in August, and by the middle of September are plentifully dispersed over all parts of the country, inhabiting alike the most thickly wooded brushes, the mangrove-forests which border, in many parts, the armlets of the sea, and the more open and thinly-timbered plains of the interior, often in the most dry and arid situations far distant from water; and it would appear that, as is the case with many of the insectivorous birds of Australia, a supply of that element is not essential to its existence, since, from the localities it is often found breeding in, it must necessarily pass long periods without being able to obtain it.

The brilliant and metallic lustre of its plumage renders it a conspicuous object in the bush: its loud piercing call, also, often betrays its presence, particularly during the season of incubation, when the bird becomes more and more clamorous as the tree in which its eggs are deposited is approached by the intruder. The note most frequently uttered is a loud _pee-pee_, continued at times to a great length, resembling a cry of distress. It sits very upright, generally perching on a small dead branch for hours together, merely flying down to capture its prey, and in most instances returning again to the site it has just left. Its food is of a very mixed character, and varies with the nature of the localities it inhabits. It greedily devours the manti, grasshoppers and caterpillars, not refusing lizards and very small snakes, all of which are swallowed whole, the latter being killed by beating their heads against a stone or other hard substance, after the manner of the Common Kingsfisher. Specimens killed in the neighbourhood of salt-marshes had their stomachs literally crammed with crabs and other crustaceous animals; while engaged in the capture of which it may be observed sitting silently on the low mangrove-bushes skirting the pools which every receding tide leaves either dry or with a surface of wet mud, upon which crabs are to be found in abundance. I have never seen it plunge into the water after fish like the true Kingsfishers, and I believe it never resorts to that mode of obtaining its prey. On the banks of the Hunter its most favourite food is the larvæ of a species of ant, which it procures by excavating holes in the nests of this insect which are constructed around the boles and dead branches of the _Eucalypti_, and which resemble excrescences of the tree itself.

The season of nidification commences in October and lasts till December, the hollow spouts of the gum and boles of the apple trees being generally selected as a receptacle for the eggs, which are four or five in number, perfectly white, one inch and a line in length, and ten lines in diameter.

The sexes present no difference either in their size or colouring, and the young are only distinguished by being of a less brilliant hue, and by the wing-coverts and feathers of the breast being edged with brown.

Crown of the head, back, and scapularies dull green; wings and tail green, slightly tinged with blue; ear-coverts, and an obscure circle bounding the green of the head, greenish black; rump verditer green; throat white; line from the nostrils over the eye, nuchal band, and all the under surface buff, becoming deeper on the flanks; bill black, the basal portion of the under mandible flesh-white; feet flesh-red, tinged with brown; irides dark brown.

The Plate represents an old and a young bird of the natural size.

HALCYON PYRRHOPYGIA, _Gould_. Red-backed Halcyon.

_Halcyon pyrrhopygia_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., September 8, 1840.

This new Halcyon is an inhabitant of the interior, but over what extent of country it may range is not yet known. The only parts where I observed it was the myall-brushes (_Acacia pendula_) of the Lower Namoi, particularly those growing on the edge of the large plain skirting the Nundawar range of Major Sir Thomas Mitchell. It was usually seen sitting very upright on the dead branches of the myall- and gum-trees, sometimes on those growing out on the hot plains, at others on those close by the river-side. I succeeded in obtaining both old and young birds, which, judging from the size of the latter, I should suppose had left their breeding-place about a month before I arrived in the neighbourhood of the Namoi, in December. I also saw in this district the common or Sacred Halcyon, but in far less abundance than between the ranges and the coast. This latter species may be hereafter found to be more exclusively an inhabitant of the country bordering the sea, while the Red-backed Halcyon may be exclusively a denizen of the distant interior. The unusual colouring of the back at once distinguishes it from all the other members of the genus inhabiting Australia, but in its general economy and mode of living it presents no observable difference.

Whether it remains during the whole of the year, or is a migratory bird like the common species, I was not able to learn; for although Mr. Charles Coxen had previously informed me of the existence of such a Halcyon on the Namoi, he could give me no further account of it.

Crown of the head dull green, intermingled with white, giving it a striated appearance: a broad black stripe commences at the base of the bill, passes through the eye, and encircles the back of the head; upper part of the back and scapularies green; remainder of the wings bluish green; lower part of the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts red; tail green, tinged with blue; throat, a broad collar encircling the back of the neck, and all the under surface white; bill black, the base of the lower mandible flesh-white; irides blackish brown; feet dark olive-brown.

The figure is of the natural size.

HALCYON SORDIDUS, _Gould_. Sordid Halcyon.

_Halcyon sordidus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part X. p. 72.

I possess two specimens of this species of _Halcyon_, which were killed by Mr. Bynoe on the north coast of Australia; unfortunately they were unaccompanied by any information respecting their habits and economy; they appear to be fully adult, and equal in size the _Halcyon collaris_,—a species, which, although said to be Australian, I have no authentic evidence of its ever having been killed therein.

Head, back, scapularies and wing-coverts brownish oil-green; wings greenish blue, gradually changing into green on the tips of the tertiaries; collar round the back of the neck and all the under surface buffy white; tail greenish blue; upper mandible and tip of the lower one black; base of the latter flesh-white.

The figures are of the natural size.

HALCYON MACLEAYII, _Jard. & Selb._ MacLeay’s Halcyon.

_Halcyon MacLeayii_, Jard. and Selb. Ill. Orn., vol. iii. pl. 101.

_Halcyon incinctus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 142, female.

_Bush Kingfisher_, Residents at Port Essington.

There certainly has not yet been discovered a more beautiful Halcyon in any part of the world than the one figured in the accompanying Plate, which has been dedicated to Mr. Alexander MacLeay by the authors of the “Illustrations of Ornithology” as a tribute of respect, in the propriety of which I entirely concur.

The extreme brilliancy of the plumage of this bird would seem to indicate that it is an inhabitant of a hotter climate than that of New South Wales, and the correctness of this inference is borne out by the fact that the _Halcyon MacLeayii_ has only yet been found on the extreme northern portion of the continent; it is tolerably abundant at Port Essington, and it is also spread over every part of the Cobourg Peninsula suited to its peculiar habits; like the other members of the genus to which it belongs, it is rarely if ever seen near water, and evinces so decided a preference for the open forests of the interior of the country that it has obtained the name of “Bush Kingfisher” from the residents at Port Essington; it is generally dispersed about in pairs, and feeds on small reptiles, insects and their larvæ; its general note is a loud _pee-pee_ uttered with considerable rapidity. It incubates in November and December, sometimes forming its nest in the hollow trunks of trees, and at others excavating a hole for itself in the nest of the tree-ants, which presents so prominent and singular a feature in the scenery of the country: the nest of the _H. Macleayii_ is easily discovered, for on the approach of an intruder the birds immediately commence flying about in a very wild manner, uttering at the same time a loud piercing cry of alarm; the eggs are three or four in number, of a pearly white and nearly round in form, being eleven lines long by ten broad.

So much difference exists in the plumage of the sexes that Mr. Gilbert states he was for some time induced to regard them as specifically distinct; an error into which I had myself previously fallen when describing the female as a new species in the “Proceedings of the Zoological Society” as quoted above; “but upon closer observation,” adds Mr. Gilbert, “I soon satisfied myself that the difference of plumage was merely sexual, the dissection of a large number of specimens fully proving that those with a ring round the neck are males and those without it females.”

The male has a line under the eye and ear-coverts deep glossy black; head, occiput, wings and tail rich deep prussian blue; primaries and secondaries white at the base, forming a conspicuous spot when the wings are spread; for the remainder of their length these feathers are black, margined externally with light prussian blue; immediately before the eye an oval spot of white; collar surrounding the back of the neck and all the under surface white, tinged with buff on the lower part of the flanks; back and upper tail-coverts verditer blue; scapularies verditer green, both these colours bounded near the white collar with prussian blue; under surface of the wing white, the tips of the coverts black; under surface of the tail black; bill black, the basal portion of the under mandible yellowish white; tarsi black; inner side of the feet and back of the tarsi ash-grey; irides very dark brown.

The general colours of the female are similar to those of the male, but she differs from her mate in being entirely destitute of the white collar at the back of the neck, which part is deep prussian blue, thus uniting the blue of the occiput and of the back; in the tints being much less brilliant in the back, being of a dull brownish verditer green, and in the upper tail-coverts pale verditer green instead of blue; upper mandible black; lower mandible half-way from the tip and along the whole of the cutting edges black, the remainder being fleshy white tinged with blue where it joins the black; legs and feet greenish grey.

The young male resembles the female in colour, but is still less brilliant; has the back of a purer green; the under surface tinged with buff; the spot on the lores deep buff; and the collar at the back of a deep buff, interrupted by some of the feathers of the occiput.

The figures are those of a male and a female of the natural size.

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.

ALCYONE PUSILLA. Little Kingfisher.

_Ceyx pusilla_, Temm. Pl. Col., 595. fig. 3.

_Nu-reä-bin-mo_, Aborigines of the Cobourg Peninsula.

This lovely little Kingfisher is a native of the northern shores of Australia; the specimens in my collection were all procured at Port Essington where it is a rare bird; and from it always inhabiting the densest mangroves, is not only seldom seen, but is extremely difficult to procure; in general habits and manners it very much resembles the _Alcyone azurea_, but its note is somewhat more shrill and piping, and its flight more unsteady. Specimens of this species from New Guinea, which I have had opportunities of examining in the noble collection at Leyden, present no difference whatever from those found in Australia.

The food of the _Alcyone pusilla_ consists exclusively of fish, which are taken precisely after the manner of the Common Kingfisher of our own island.

The sexes are alike in size and colour.

Lores, a tuft behind the ear-coverts and under surface silky white; forehead, sides of the neck, wing-coverts and the margins of the secondaries green; primaries brownish black; all the upper surface and a large patch on each side on the chest brilliant intense blue; tail dull deep blue; irides dark blackish brown; bill black; legs and feet greenish grey.

The figures are of the natural size.

ARTAMUS SORDIDUS. Wood Swallow.

_Turdus sordidus_, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp., p. xliii.

_Sordid Thrush_, Lath. Gen. Syn., Supp., vol. ii. p. 186.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. x. p. 238.—Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. v. p. 131.

_Ocypterus albovittatus_, Cuv. Règn. Anim., tom. iv. t. 3. f. 6.—Valenc. Mém. du Mus. d’Hist. Nat., tom. vi. p. 23. t. 8. f. 2.—Gould, Syn. Birds of Australia, Part I. fig. 3.

_Artamus lineatus_, Vieill. 2nde Edit. du Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xvii. p. 297.—Ib. Ency. Méth., Part II. p. 758.

_Artamus albovittatus_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 210.

_Leptopteryx albovittata_, Wagl. Syst. Av., sp. 5.

_Be-wö-wen_, Aborigines of the lowland and mountain districts of Western Australia.

_Worle_, Aborigines of King George’s Sound.

_Wood Swallow_ of the colonists.

This Wood Swallow has been long known to ornithologists, but unfortunately under so many generic and specific appellations, that it may be cited as an instance of the manner in which our science has been burthened with useless names, thereby producing an inextricable confusion, and which in this instance, by a reference to Latham’s accurate description, and the slightest care on the part of other writers, might have been avoided.

No other species of the Australian _Artami_ with which I am acquainted possesses so wide a range from east to west as the present; the whole of the southern portion of the continent, as well as the island of Van Diemen’s Land, being alike favoured with its presence. The extent of its range northward has not yet been satisfactorily ascertained, beyond the certainty that it has not hitherto been received in any collection from the north coast.

It may be regarded as strictly migratory in Van Diemen’s Land, where it arrives in October, the beginning of the Australian summer, and after rearing at least two broods departs again northwards in November. On the continent a scattered few remain throughout the year in all the localities favourable to its habits, the number being regulated by the supply of insect food necessary for their subsistence. I may here observe, that specimens from Swan River, South Australia and New South Wales present no difference either in size or colouring, while those from Van Diemen’s Land are invariably larger in all their admeasurements, and are also of a deeper colour; I regard them, however, as mere varieties of each other, the greater size of the latter being doubtless caused by the superabundance of food which this more southern and humid climate affords.

This Wood Swallow, besides being the commonest species of the genus, must I think be rendered a general favourite with the Australians, not only from its singular and pleasing actions, but by its often taking up its abode and incubating near the houses, particularly such as are surrounded by paddocks and open pasture-lands skirted by large trees. It was in such situations as these in Van Diemen’s Land, at the commencement of spring, that I first had an opportunity of observing this species; it was then very numerous on all the cleared estates on the north side of the Derwent, about eight or ten being seen on a single tree, and half as many crowding one against another on the same dead branch, but never in such numbers as to deserve the appellation of flocks: each bird appeared to act independently of the other; each, as the desire for food prompted it, sallying forth from the branch to capture a passing insect, or to soar round the tree and return again to the same spot; on alighting it repeatedly throws up and closes one wing at a time, and spreads the tail obliquely prior to settling. At other times a few were seen perched on the fence surrounding the paddock, on which they frequently descended, like Starlings, in search of coleoptera and other insects. It is not, however, in this state of comparative quiescence that this graceful bird is seen to the greatest advantage, neither is it that kind of existence for which its form is especially adapted; for although its structure is more equally suited for terrestrial, arboreal and aërial habits than that of any other species I have examined, the form of its wing at once points out the air as its peculiar province: hence it is, that when engaged in pursuit of the insects which the serene and warm weather has enticed from their lurking-places among the foliage to sport in higher regions, this beautiful species in these aërial flights displays its greatest beauty, while soaring above, in a variety of easy positions, with white-tipped tail widely spread. Another very extraordinary and singular habit of the bird is that of clustering like bees on the dead branch of a tree, as represented in the Plate; this feature was not seen by me, but by my assistant Mr. Gilbert, during his residence at Swan River, and I have here given his account in his own words. “The greatest peculiarity in the habits of this bird is its manner of suspending itself in perfect clusters, like a swarm of bees; a few birds suspending themselves on the under side of a dead branch, while others of the flock attach themselves one to the other, in such numbers that they have been observed nearly of the size of a bushel measure.”