Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One of sundry slender-billed birds, especially the kingfisher or halcyon and the bee-eater or apiaster.
- noun The technical specific name of the small kingfisher of Europe, Alcedo ispida.
- noun [capitalized] A genus of kingfishers, equivalent to the modern family Alcedinidæ, variously restricted by subsequent authors, and now disused.
Etymologies
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Examples
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The brilliant little Kingfisher (Alcedo ispida), the most gay in colour of all our birds, may still sometimes be seen, darting about the only rivulet which we can boast of at Woodhall, and which rejoices in the unattractive name of “The Sewer,” {46b} although its water, welling up at its source near Well Syke Wood, is beautifully clear and pure.
Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter James Conway Walter
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The only kingfisher that occurs abundantly throughout the Nilgiris is the common kingfisher (_Alcedo ispida_).
Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916
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_) Another example of coquetry is furnished by the female kingfisher (_Alcedo ispida_), which will spend all the morning in teasing and flying away from the male, but is careful constantly to look back, and never to let him out of her sight.
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 The Evolution of Modesty; The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity; Auto-Erotism Havelock Ellis 1899
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