Sub-fam. 2. Todinae.–This includes four diminutive species of the genus Todus, structurally resembling the Motmots; the tail, however, being short and square, the wings abbreviated with only ten secondaries, the beak flattened and but faintly serrated, and the rictal bristles well-developed. The long metatarsus is covered with one scale; the marginal laminae of the tongue point backwards.
Todies frequent hilly districts and woods, and especially the vicinity of ravines, being very active on their feet, and taking short rapid flights from branch to branch when disturbed. They used to be considered close allies of the Flycatchers, probably owing to their habit of darting out upon their prey from some branch, to which they return immediately. They sit with upturned bill and head drawn in, their wings vibrating and their plumage puffed out, and when thus perched they are so unsuspicious that they may sometimes be caught with a butterfly-net, or even with the hand. The pugnacious males chase each other, clattering their bills, and, while courting, ruffle themselves up and droop their wings. The three or four globular white eggs are laid in a hole low down in the face of some bank, which is excavated to a considerable depth and commonly turns at right angles; the terminal chamber usually containing a slight nest of fibres, grass, moss, or cotton. In captivity Todies make engaging pets.
The coloration is green, with a bright red throat, yellowish-white or pinkish under parts, and yellow, green, or pink feathers on the flanks. The bill is dull red. Todus viridis inhabits Jamaica; T. subulatus Hispaniola; T. multicolor, which has a blue spot on each cheek, Cuba; T. hypochondriacus Porto Rico. The length varies from three and a half to four and a half inches.
Fig. 79.–Tody. Todus viridis. × ⅝.
Fam. III. Alcedinidae.–The Kingfishers, with the Sub-families (1) Halcyoninae, or Wood-Kingfishers, and (2) Alcedininae, or Water-Kingfishers, are remarkable not only for the aberrant species found among them, but also for their peculiar forms and particularly brilliant colours, at once strikingly contrasted and tasteful. The head looks disproportionately large, an appearance often heightened by the crest and the long, stout bill. This feature in the Alcedininae is compressed and sharp-pointed, with keeled culmen and upcurved genys; in the Halcyoninae it is broader and rounder, and sometimes grooved. In Syma the maxilla is serrated, as in the Momotidae; in Carcineutes and Dacelo it exceeds the mandible, and in Melidora it is hooked. The feeble metatarsi are scutellated or rarely reticulated; the third and fourth toes are joined for most of their length, the second and third for one joint, all being broad below; the claws are sharp and curved. Ceyx and Alcyone have the second digit aborted. The wings are short and rounded, yet powerful, the primaries being eleven in number, with the outer much reduced, the secondaries from eleven to fourteen; the tail is commonly abbreviated, but in Tanysiptera has a median pair of greatly elongated racquet-tipped feathers; that genus, moreover, possesses but ten rectrices instead of twelve. The furcula is U-shaped, the syrinx is tracheo-bronchial, there is no aftershaft, the adults are uniformly downy, the nestlings are naked. The tongue is rudimentary, though said to shew an approach to that of the Motmots in Pelargopsis. The sexes may be similar or dissimilar, even in the same genus; the young are like their parents, or somewhat duller. The colours of the Family are most variable, a combination of blue, green, and chestnut being frequent, while almost uniform red, or black and white, are not uncommon; the beak may be black, red, yellow, or parti-coloured. About twenty genera, with some hundred and fifty species, occupy nearly the whole globe, though by far the greater number are found from Celebes to Papuasia, while Ceryle alone is American.
The habits in the Family are as diverse as the styles of plumage. The Water-Kingfishers love shady haunts by quiet lowland streams, where the fishes which form their chief diet abound; in such situations they may be seen sitting patient and motionless on some favourite overhanging bough or projecting stone, from which they dart out like an arrow upon their prey. If successful, they return immediately to their perch, on which they beat the fish before jerking it down the throat. At other times they hover over the water with vibrating pinions, or dive perpendicularly with closed wings. They are not, however, entirely piscivorous, but eat insects and small crustaceans, especially when they seek the sea-shore, as do several species of Halcyon, Alcedo, and Ceryle, including our native Kingfisher, chiefly towards winter. In tropical countries reeds and sugar-canes serve for perches. The flight is straight and quick, but not long sustained; the note is either high-pitched, and of two or three syllables, which may be likened to "tit-it-it," or is loud and harsh; it is most frequently heard as the birds skim over the streams in the anxious time of breeding, while the young have similar cries, and are very noisy just before leaving the nest, which they render extremely foul. The eggs are laid in holes in perpendicular river-banks, disused gravel-pits and the like, or even in cavities in walls or rotten stumps, the circular tunnel usually penetrating to a depth of two or three feet, and forming an enlarged terminal chamber. The number of eggs varies from four to ten in different species; they are round, white, glossy, and thin-shelled, and look very pink when they are fresh; they usually lie on a bed of fish-bones, consisting chiefly of vertebrae, not uncommonly deposited before laying begins. Ceryle rudis is stated to make a nest of grass, C. amazona one of sticks and straw, the former at times breeding in colonies. The male has been known to assist in incubation, which lasts a fortnight or more; while two broods are occasionally reared in the season, especially in warmer climates. The Wood-Kingfishers prefer shady forest-regions, not necessarily near water, but also frequent the vicinity of houses; their food consists of insects caught in the air, caterpillars, reptiles, frogs, crustaceans, worms and molluscs, though they occasionally eat fish. The nests, placed in holes in trees or banks, are said in some cases to be of a few straws, dry leaves, or moss. The genus Dacelo and its allies, including the largest forms of the Family, are natives of Australia and New Guinea, where they often inhabit very dry situations. They will even eat small mammals or birds, bruising them before deglutition, and lay two or three white eggs in holes in trees without any nest. The note is an extraordinary loud gurgling or barking sound, from which they are called "Laughing Jackasses."
Kingfishers are difficult to keep in captivity, while hard frosts cause much mortality, though the use of the feathers for artificial flies or for ornament adds to the scarcity. The males are at times very pugnacious. Many fables are connected with the Family; for instance, Ceyx and Alcyone were said to have been changed by Zeus into Kingfishers, while Aeolus, father of Alcyone, kept the weather calm in midwinter (the fourteen halcyon days), when the birds formed a floating nest upon the deep. A dried specimen, if hung up, was supposed to act as a weathercock with its bill, as Shakespeare intimates.
Fig. 80.–Racquet-tailed Kingfisher. Tanysiptera dea. × ½. (From Malay Archipelago.)