:iO 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist. 



[Vol. XXV. 



and the two "clam-shrimps", Estheria 

 mexicana and Limnetis (jouldii. The fem- 

 ale had ripe eggs in its long, tapering ^ 

 ovisac, and the three males had the copula- 

 tory organs well developed. This is the 

 first record of this family in Canada ; it 

 is known in the United States only from 

 Colorado, from which state it was origin- 

 ally described and figured by Dodds in 

 1916. The family (and genus) is char- 

 acterized by the male having very long, 

 tortuous and three- jointed claspers (se- 

 cond antenna?), with particularly the ter- 

 minal joint subdivided into branches and 



10 Thus distinguished from the female B. 

 paludosa. 



appendages (see figure l)y Cockerell, 

 1912). The male has the protruding geni- 

 talia rather small and slender; while with 

 the female the second pair of antennae 

 hardl.y exceeds the first pair in length. 



This new Canadian record makes it verj^ 

 probable tliat the species also occurs in 

 AVyoming and Montana. In Colorado it 

 occurs, according to Dodds (Proc. U. S. N. 

 M. Vol. 49), on the eastern slope of the 

 Rocky Mountains (Eldorado and Fort Col- 

 lins), up to an elevation of almost 9,000 

 feet. The new record at Medicine Hat 

 (which lies at an elevation of about 2,135 

 feet) apparently gives the lowest known 

 altitude of the occurrence of the species._ 

 (To he concluded.) 



SOME NOTES ON THE BELTED KINGFISHER. 

 By Prof. William Rowan, University of Alberta, Edmonton. 



The following notes were obtained at 

 the neAv Biological Station of the Man- 

 itoba University on the shores of Indian 

 Bay, Shoal Lake, Lake of the Woods, Man., 

 between the 15th of June and the 4th of 

 August 1920. The Biological Station is 

 placed in the wildest scenery right on the 

 shores of the bay, 100 miles east of Win- 

 nipeg. Most of the intervening country 

 is muskeg and little of it is settled. The 

 University buildings consist of two bunga- 

 lows, and there are half a dozen other 

 buildings inhabited by employees of the 

 Greater Winnipeg Water District and 

 hands connected with the little private 

 railway which supplies them with food 

 and weekly mail bag. The birds w-ere 

 therefore studied in a comparatively un- 

 disturbed and natural environment. 



The shores of the lake are entirely rocky 

 and thickly clothed with trees, mainly 

 poplars. The scores of islands in Shoal 

 Lake are similarly of solid rock, covered 

 with extremely dense vegetation. On our 

 arrival tlie nesting sites of the Kingfisher, 

 one of the most abundant birds, was a 

 problem, for even his colossal beak is use- 

 less when it comes to working in rock. No 

 amount of searching or watching from the 

 canoe along the banks revealed a single 

 nesting hole. The continual passage, how- 

 ever, of Kingfishers from the shores of 

 the lake to the banks of a large gravel pit 

 a relic of the water works operations 



put us on the right track and on the third 

 day we had found the first nest. The holes 

 are so characteristic that, having found 

 one, others were easy, and a half hour's 

 search revealed nearly a dozen nests in 

 the two banks. The pit is about a quarter 

 of a mile in length and some hundred yards 

 across and the banks are mainly of soft 

 sand. The only other birds nesting in 

 holes here are Rough- Winged Swallows, 

 and of these there is but one small colony 

 with their little holes characteristically 

 close to one another. The Kingfisher's 

 holes are much larger, being six or seven 

 inches across, and all are at the tops of the 

 banks. Some are old, others in use. The 

 latter can immediately be detected by the 

 curious double track of tlie two feet of the 

 parents worn into the soft sand and run- 

 ning from the entrance inwards. There is 

 no offensive smell however, and no filth 

 oozing out, two characteristics of some other 

 species of Kingfisher. The burrow is as a 

 rule between two and three feet in length, 

 liorizontal sind straight. The terminal 

 chamber is very roomy, as indeed it must 

 be to hold the seven or eight large young. 

 It is invariably sunk beneath the level of 

 the run, and if dug out is found to have 

 the wall dripping and reeking with filth. 

 The young, when ready to fly, have an ex 

 tremely offensive smell, their breast and 

 belly feathers being plastered togethe 

 with caked sand. 



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