or Kingfisher, in ornithology, a genus of the order of piscivora. The alcedo has a long, straight, thick, triangular bill; with a fleshy, plain, short, flat tongue.

Of this genus there are a great many species, with one or other of which almost every part of the world is furnished. Most of them frequent rivers, and live on fish, the singularity of catching which is admirable: sometimes hovering over the water, where a shoal of small fishes is seen playing near the surface; at other times waiting with attention, on some low branch hanging over the water, for the approach of a single one who is so unlucky as to swim that way; in either case dropping like a stone, or rather darting with rapidity on his prey; when, seizing it crosswise in his bill, it retires to a resting place to feed on it; which it does piecemeal, bones and all, without reserve, afterwards bringing up the indigestible parts in pellets, like birds of prey. The wings of most of the gems are very short; yet the birds fly rapidly, and with great strength. It may be remarked, that throughout this genus, blue, in different shades, is the most predominant colour.—The species found in the South Sea Islands are held in a kind of superstitious veneration by the natives of the places they severally inhabit, perhaps on account of their being frequently seen flying about the morais or burial-places. That which inhabits Otaheite, where it is called Eroero, is accounted particularly sacred, and not allowed to be taken or killed.

1. The ifipida, or common kingfisher, is not much larger than a swallow; its shape is clumsy; the bill disproportionably long; it is two inches from the base to the tip; the upper chap black, and the lower yellow. But the colours of this bird attone for its inelegant form: the crown of the head and the coverts of the wings are of a deep blackish green, spotted with bright azure; the back and tail are of the most resplendent azure; the whole under-side of the body is orange-coloured; a broad mark of the same passes from the bill beyond the eyes; beyond that is a large white spot; the tail is short, and consists of twelve feathers of a rich deep blue; blue; the feet are of a reddish yellow, and the three joints of the outmost toe adhere to the middle toe, while the inner toe adheres only by one.

From the diminutive size, the slender short legs, and the beautiful colours of this bird, no person would be led to suppose it one of the most rapacious little animals that skim the deep. Yet it is ever on the wing, and feeds on fish; which it takes in surprising quantities, when we consider its size and figure. It takes its prey after the manner of the osprey, balancing itself at a certain distance above the water for a considerable space, then darting into the deep, and seizing the fish with inevitable certainty. While it remains suspended in the air, in a bright day, the plumage exhibits a beautiful variety of the most dazzling and brilliant colours.

This striking attitude did not escape the notice of the ancients; for Ibycus, as quoted by Athenaeus, styles these birds ἀκανθίδες ταύρωτοι, the halcyons with expanded wings. It makes its nest in holes in the sides of the cliffs, which it scoops to the depth of three feet; and lays from five to nine eggs, of a most beautiful semi-transparent white. The female begins to lay early in the season, and excludes her first brood about the beginning of April. The male, whose fidelity exceeds even that of the turtle, brings her large provisions of fish while she is thus employed; and she, contrary to most other birds, is found plump and fat at that season. The male, that used to twitter before this, now enters the nest as quietly and as privately as possible. The young ones are hatched at the expiration of 20 days; but are seen to differ as well in their size as in their beauty.

This species is the ἀκανθίδες, or mute halcyon of Aristotle, which he describes with more precision than is usual with that great philosopher. After his description of the bird follows that of its nest; than which the most inventive of the ancients have delivered nothing that appears at first sight more fabulous and extravagant. He relates, that it resembled those concretions that are formed by the sea-water; that it resembled the long-necked gourd; that it was hollow within; that the entrance was very narrow, so that, should it overleap, the water could not enter; that it resisted any violence from iron, but could be broke with a blow from the hand; and that it was composed of the bones of the ἐλάσσονα, or needle-fish. The nest had medical virtues ascribed to it; and from the bird was called Ἀλκυόνης. In a fabulous age, every odd substance that was flung ashore received that name; a species of tubular coral, a sponge, a zoophyte, and a miscellaneous concrete, having by the ancients been dignified with that title from their imaginary origin*. Yet much of this seems to be founded on truth. The form of the nest is justly described; and the materials which Aristotle says it was composed of, are not entirely of his own invention. Whoever has seen the nest of the kingfisher, will observe it screwed with the bones and scales of fish; the fragments of the food of the owner and its young.—On the foundation laid by the philosopher, succeeding writers formed other tales extremely absurd; and the poets, indulging the powers of imagination, drested the story in all the robes of romance. This nest was a floating one:

Incubat halcyone pendentibus æquore nidis. OVID. Met. lib. xi.

It was therefore necessary to place it in a tranquil sea, and to supply the bird with charms to allay the fury of a turbulent element during the time of its incubation; for it had, at that season, power over the seas and the winds.

χ' ἀλκυόνις σφροντιζομένη τὰ κοιλάτα, τὸν τε Σαλαμίνας, Τοῦ τε νότου, τοῦ τ' εὐρών, ὡς ἐξ ἕλκει πυκνὰ κίνης' Αἰγιούς, γαλαξίας Νηρῆις ται τε μέλισσα Οὔνοια εἰρήναισιν. THEOCRIT. Idyl. vii. l. 57.

May Halcyon smooth the waves, and calm the seas, And the rough south-east fink into a breeze; Halcyon, of all the birds that haunt the main, Most lov'd and honour'd by the Nereid train.

Fawkes.

These birds were equally favourites with Thetis as with the Nereids;

Dilectæ Thetidi Halcyones. VIRG. Georg. I. 399— as if to their influence these deities owed a repose in the midst of the storms of winter, and by their means were secured from those winds that disturb their submarine retreats, and agitated even the plants at the bottom of the ocean.

Such are the accounts given by the Roman and Sicilian poets. Aristotle and Pliny tells us, that this bird is most common in the seas of Sicily: that it sat only a few days, and those in the depth of winter; and during that period the mariner might sail in full security; for which reason they were styled Halcyon days.

Perque dies placidos hiberno tempore septem Incubat Halcyone pendentibus æquore nidis: Tum via tuta maris: ventos custodit, et arct Æolus egressu. OVID. Met. lib. xi.

Alcyone, compress'd, Seven days sits brooding on her watery nest, A wintry queen; her fire at length is kind, Calms every storm, and hushes every wind.

Dryden.

In after-times, these words expressed any season of prosperity: these were the Halcyon days of the poets; the brief tranquillity, the septem placidi die, of human life.

The poets also made it a bird of song. Virgil seems to place it in the same rank with the linnet;

Littoraque Halconem resonant, et Acanthida dumit. GEORG. III. 338.

And Silius Italicus celebrates its music, and its floating nest:

Cum sonat Halcyone cantu, nidosque natantes Immota gestat fopitis fluctibus unda. Lib. xiv. 275.

But these writers seem to have transferred to our species, the harmony that belongs to the vocal alcedo*, Ari*, one of the lost birds of the ancients.

As the ancients have had their fables concerning this bird, so have the modern vulgar. It is an opinion generally received among them, that the flesh of the kingfisher will not corrupt, and that it will even banish all vermin. This has no better foundation than that which is said of its always pointing, when hung up dead, with its breast to the north. The only truth which can be affirmed of this bird when killed is, that its its flesh is utterly unfit to be eaten; while its beautiful plumage preserves its lustre longer than that of any other bird we know.

This bird is found not only in Britain, but throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa; as specimens have been received from both China, Bengal, and Egypt. Bellon also remarks his having met with it in Romania and Greece; and Scopoli notices it as a bird of Carniola, where he says it remains the whole year as in England. Indeed it bears the rigours of the colder climates so well, that among the Germans it has gained the name of Eisvogel, or Ice Bird: Oliva speaks also of its not regarding the ice and cold; and Gmelin assures us, that it is found even in Tartary and Siberia. But, however this may be, there are few winters in which many of these birds do not perish, apparently from cold alone; as several have been found frozen stiff by the sides of even running water, without the least mark of violence about them. M. D'Aubenton has kept these birds for several months, by means of small fish put into basins of water, on which they have fed; for on experiment they have refused all other kinds of nourishment.

2. The rudis, or Egyptian kingsfisher, as described by Hasselquist, is the size of the Royton crow. The bill is blackish, more than half an inch broad at the base, and two inches in length: the head, shoulders, and back, are brown, marked with oblong ferruginous spots: the throat is of a ferruginous white: the belly and thighs are whitish, marked with longitudinal brownish cinereous spots: upper tail coverts are quite white: the quills spotted with white on the inner webs, chiefly at the tips: the tail is ash-coloured: the legs are of a pale green; and the claws blackish. It inhabits lower Egypt, about Cairo; builds in sycamore and date trees; and feeds on frogs, insects, and small fish, which it meets with in the fields when they are overflowed. Its cry is not unlike that of the common crow.

3. Le taparara of Buffon is about the size of a starling. The upper mandible of the bill is black, the lower red: the hind part of the neck, the back, and scapulars, are of an elegant blue; the rump and upper tail coverts bright beryl-blue: the under parts of the body are white; the wing coverts blue; and the legs red. Inhabits Cayenne and Guiana, at which last place the natives call all the kingsfisher tribe by the name Taparara. In this part of South America, which contains many rivers full of fish, kingsfishers, as might be expected, abound in vast numbers: but what is remarkable, they never herd together, always being found single, except in breeding-time, which is about the month of September. They lay their eggs in the holes of banks, like the kingsfisher of Europe. The cry of this bird imitates the word Carac.

4. The torquata, or cinereous kingsfisher, is about the size of a magpie, and fifteen inches and a half in length. The bill is three inches and a half long, and brown; the base of the lower mandible reddish: the head is crested: the upper parts of the head and body are blueish ash: the under parts chestnut: the throat is whitish, descending down the neck, and puffing behind like a collar, ending towards the back in a point: the under tail coverts are of a pale fulvous, transversely striated with black: lesser wing coverts varied with blueish, ash, black, and yellowish: the legs are red; and the claws blackish. It inhabits Martinico and Alcedo, Mexico; at which last it is called Akalolatelli. This Alchemilla migrates into the northern parts of Mexico at certain seasons only, and is supposed to come there from some hotter parts.

[The jacamar are much allied to this genus, and have been ranked under it by Linnaeus: Their toes are, however, differently placed; their food also is different, being insects alone, and not fish; and their haunts are different, being moist woods, and not shores or the banks of rivers.]

5. The galbula, or green jacamar, is about the size of a lark. The bill is black, of a square form, a little incurvated and sharp at the point: the plumage in general, in the upper part of the body, is of a most brilliant green, gloated with copper and gold in different lights: the belly, throat, and vent, are rufous: the tail is composed of ten feathers, and shaped like a wedge: the legs are of a greenish yellow, very short and weak; the claws are black. This species is found both in Guiana and Brazil, in the moist woods, which it prefers to the more dry spots, for the sake of insects, on which it feeds. It is seldom seen except single, as it is a very solitary bird, keeping for the most part in the thickest parts; its flight quick, but short; perches on branches of a middling height, where it sits all night, and frequently part of the day, without stirring. Though these birds are solitary, yet they are far from scarce, as many may be met with. They are said to have a short and agreeable note. The natives of Guiana call this bird Venatore, and the Creoles, Colibri des grands bois. At Brazil their flesh is eaten by some.

6. The paradisea, or paradise jacamar, is of the same size with the former, and has a similar bill: the throat, fore part of the neck, and under wing coverts, are white: the rest of the plumage is of a deep dull green, in some lights appearing almost black, in others with a slight glint of violet and copper bronze: the tail is composed of twelve feathers of unequal lengths: the two middle ones longest: the legs are black: the toes are placed two before and two behind, and pretty much united. It inhabits Surinam; and like the others, it feeds on insects; and sometimes, contrary to them, frequents open places. It flies farther at a time, and perches on the tops of trees: It is frequently found with a companion, not being quite so solitary a bird as the other. It also differs in the note, having a kind of soft whistle often repeated, but not heard a great way off.

Above 30 other species have been described by ornithologists.