390 



BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



Ceryle alcyon (Linn.) 



BELTED KINGFISHER 

 Popular synonym. Kingfisher. 



Alcedo alcyon LINN. 8. N. ed. 12, i. 1766, 180. WLLS. Am. Orn. iii, 1811, 59. AUD. Orn. 

 Biog. i, 1831, 394. pi. 77; Synop. 1839, 173; B. Am. iv. 1842, 205. pi. 255,-NuTT. Man. i, 

 1832. 594. 



Ceryle alcyon BOIE, 1828. BAIED, B. N. Am. 1858, 158; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, No. 117. 

 COUES, Key, 1872,188; Check List, 1874, No. 286; 2d ed. 1882, No. 423; B. N. W. 1874. 

 372.-B. B. & E. Hist. N. Am. B. ii. 1874, 392, pL 45, flg. 6.-BiDGW. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, 

 No. 382. 



HAB. Whole of North America, south (in winter only ?) to Isthmus of Panama and 

 throughout West Indies. 



SP. CHAB. Bluish plumbeous above, white beneath; nape with a white collar and 

 breast with a plumbeous or brownish band. Head with a double erectile crest of narrow 

 feathers. Adult male. Sides white, tinged with plumbeous. Adult female. Sides and 

 a more or less complete band across belly, rufous. Young. Similar to the adult, but 

 the male with the breast-band and color of sides tinged with rusty. 



Total length (fresh specimens), 13.50-14.50; extent, 22.50-24.00; wing (skins), 9.10-9.50; 

 tail. 3.80-4.30. 



The Belted Kingfisher is to be found wherever there are streams, 

 ponds, or lakes, affording a sufficient supply of its food. It is chiefly 

 a summer resident, but has been frequently observed during mild 

 winters in the southern counties. 



"The Kingfisher," says Dr. Brewer,* "is an eminently unsocial 

 species. It is never found other than in solitary pairs, and these 

 are very rarely seen together. They feed almost entirely upon fish, 

 which they capture by plunging into the water, and which they 

 always swallow whole on emerging from their bath. Undigested 

 portions of their food, such as scales, bones, etc., they have the 

 power of occasionally ejecting from their stomachs. They may 

 usually be noticed by the sides of streams, mill ponds and lakes 

 stationed on some convenient position that enables them to over- 

 look a deep place suitable for their purpose, and they rarely make 

 a plunge without accomplishing their object." 



"They nest in deep holes excavated by themselves in the sides 

 of streams, ponds or cliffs, not always in the immediate vicinity of 

 water. These excavations are often near their accustomed fishing 

 grounds, in some neighboring bank, usually not many feet from the 

 ground, always in dry gravel, and sufficiently high to be in no dan- 

 ger of inundation. They make their burrow with great industry and 

 rapidity, relieving one another from time to time, and working in- 

 cessantly until the result is satisfactorily accomplished. When dig- 



Hist. N. Am. B.. Vol. II. pp. 894, 395. 



