High on a bookcase I have a mounted Common Kingfisher (seen here provoking a Mountain Barbet – Meglaima monticola)

 Compare and contrast with the following example of the taxidermist's craft/art by Peter Morass of Austria;

 It is reminiscent of this remarkable photograph by Lazlo Novak;
(Sent to me by my friend, J)

 The following illustration is by Roland Green (1896-1972), it has more than a hint of sentimentality, but not too much for my dubious taste.

 The bird's iridescent plumage is a challenge for a guide-book illustrator; a 'pure' artist can use techniques to throw the eye but an illustrator who wants the viewer to recognise field marks is limited in what he can do.

 Above is a faded illustration that may have been a little dull to start off with. It's by George Rankin, and shows the bird at the entrance to its nesting tunnel. This tunnel is roughly a metre long, making the nest extremely difficult to find and giving rise to a well-known myth, which, as A F Gotch demonstrates in the following paragraph, is hinted at in the bird's Linnaean name, Alcedo atthis (atthis, incidently, being Latin for Athenian);

 “There are famous legends about the kingfishers; the ancient Greeks thought they conceived at sea and built floating nests, and so at this time the Gods favoured them and kept the sea calm. The Greek word for kingfisher, alkuon, is derived from hals (Gr) of the sea, and kuo (Gr) I conceive, hence 'halcyon days', calm days, kingfisher days.”

 Kookaburras are large, terrestrial kingfishers. There are four species; Blue-winged, Rufous-bellied, Spangled and Laughing.

Laughing Kookaburra,
'The Evolution Store', Manhattan

 Given the distinctive characteristics of the Laughing Kookaburra, such as the snake-eating and the maniacal call, it has a very unimaginative binomial name; Dacelo novaeguineae.

 The specific name, novaeguineae, refers to the fact that besides Australia it occurs also in New Guinea.

 The Kookaburra's generic name, Dacelo, has no scientific basis at all and is simply an anagram of Acledo, which is the generic name for the Common Kingfisher – a little known fact that one could raise during a lull in dinner party conversation (should one want to prolong the lull).