Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/61

48 upper parts is resplendent with emerald green, becoming on the tail ultramarine blue, while the under parts are of a pale orange hue; the throat and neck are varied with white and blue.



The ordinary food of our beautiful Kingfisher is certainly fish; the stickleback and the minnow, with the young of larger species, supply his need; but he is said also to eat slugs, worms, and leeches. The manner in which he procures his prey is graphically drawn in the following picture of his habits by Mr. Martin:—"Occasionally it hovers at a moderate elevation over the water, and then darts down with astonishing velocity and suddenness on some unwary fish, which, heedless of its foe, ventures near the surface, and which is