TCD MS 10516 folio 61 recto
[12th October 1916] differ in their methods of fishing. It is well known that the Indian Common Kingfisher awaits its prey from a fixed perch while the Pied Kingfisher hovers stationary in the air. This difference is not without a purpose; that the one species should fish from a perch, the other from a poise is not a mere peculiarity of function without a definite reason. I think that the Indian Common Kingfisher has learnt to fish from a perch because it prefers the smaller fish that frequent the shallower waters at the margin of the banks and beneath the overhanging trees. The Pied Kingfisher seeks larger fish, which inhabit deeper water, and it must therefore leave the banks to go into mid-stream. Thus it was interesting to notice that, when the floods rose and the deep water flowed about the palm-trees; then the Pied