294 ^^^ Irish Naturalist. 



The Kingfisher is a solitary bird, and except in the breed- 

 ing season, two are rarely seen together, unless fishing- 

 grounds are scarce. Soon after their arrival each pair 

 selects a suitable nesting-site and fishing-ground, from 

 both of which all intruders are kept away. River-men say 

 that the whole length of the Mississippi, with all its bays 

 and creeks, is thus divided among the Kingfishers, each pair 

 having its own territory. The nesting-site is some bank of 

 sand or clay, usually but not always above water ; there 

 a hole is dug from four to eight, or even fifteen feet in depth, 

 and the eggs deposited in a chamber at the farther end. No 

 nest is built, but the hole is often lined with fish-bones 

 mingled with other refuse of the bird's food. The eggs are 

 usually six in number, pure glossy white, and measure about 

 1.35 by 1.05. The Kingfisher varies his usual diet of fish 

 with an occasional lizard, small snake, crab, craw-fish, or 

 mouse ; the indigestible portions of his food are cast up in the 

 form of pellets, after the manner of the birds of prey. 



When a Belted Kingfisher is in the neighbourhood, the 

 most careless observer is sure to notice him. His note, 

 frequently sounded, is a loud rattling laugh. He is a large 

 bird, and chooses the most conspicuous places for perching, 

 where his great bill and bushy crest make him recognisable as 

 far as seen. The Irishman, accustomed to the little jewelled 

 darling of his own hill-streams, would call him a " coorse 

 lump of a bird." He is over a foot long, and about two feet 

 in expanse of wing. The wings and tail are both proportion- 

 ately longer than in the genus Alcedo, to which the Irish 

 Kingfisher belongs. 



The general colour of the upper parts of the Belted King- 

 fisher is slaty-blue, and of the under parts white ; the wings 

 are spotted, and the tail barred with white. The female has 

 the breast-band shaded with chestnut, and is chestnut on the 

 belly and flanks ; young birds resemble the female. 



While the Belted Kingfisher is found in a variety of sur- 

 roundings, wherever in fact there is water from which he may 

 obtain his food, and while I have seen him in just such quiet 

 nooks as the Irish Kingfisher loves to haunt, yet he is chiefly 

 associated in my mind with very different scenes. It is the 

 I St of September, the breeding season is over, and the first 

 migrants are already here from the north. The collector 



