Family Alcedinidcs- -Belted Kingfisher 149 



FAMILY ALCEDINID^. 



85. BELTED KINGFISHER 



(Ceryle alcyon.) 



Male: Upper parts gray-blue with a conspicuous white collar; 

 under parts in general white, but with a broad gray-blue band 

 across the breast ; sides under the wings gray-blue. Crest large 

 and conspicuous. Beak very strong, longer than the head, dark. 

 Feet brown, tarsus (i. e., the first joint above the toes) very short. 

 This condition is compensated by having the joint next above 

 the tarsus partly bare of feathers. Bird distinctly larger than a 

 robin. Female : similar, but with a chestnut belly-band in addi- 

 tion to the blue-gray breast-band, and with the sides under the 

 wings chestnut. 



THESE fine birds spend as large a part of the year 

 as possible with us, being forced south only by the 

 freezing of the streams from which they draw their 

 food. They come in March, and leave in Novem- 

 ber. They may be found in the neighborhood of 

 any pond or large stream, but are not abundant, as 

 one pair usually pre-empts an entire body of water. 



The nest is a long burrow in a sandy or gravelly 

 bank, usually near the water. Eggs are laid about 

 the end of May. 



The cry, loud and hoarse, is not unlike a watch- 

 man's rattle. 



LITERATURE: 



A Naturalist's Rambles. C. C. ABBOTT. 



