314 LAND BIRDS 



Breediiig Season : In California, April and Ma}-. 



Nest: An excavation 6 to 12 feet long, in a bank, usually over water. 



Bggs: 4 to 8 ; white. Size 1.35 X 1.08. 



Along the streams of the interior valleys of California 

 the Belted Kingfisher lives, the only requisite for his 

 happiness being sufficient water to furnish his necessary 

 supply of small fish. No fresh-water pond or brook is 

 complete without him. Unsocial and even quarrelsome, 

 he is usually seen sitting alone on a low perch over- 

 hanging the water, waiting in silence for the gleam of a 

 fin. Suddenly out he dashes, hovers above the waves 

 a moment, then plunges down to reappear with a strug- 

 gling fish in his bill and fly to a different perch to de- 

 vour it. Should he wait long with no success, he flies 

 to another fishing ground a few yards away, uttering his 

 harsh rattle ; for he is angry, and wants the world to 

 know it. This cry of anger rings loud and clear when 

 he sees you watching him, and all the woodfolk take 

 warning at it. A deer will stop drinking instantly on 

 hearing it and break for cover, although you have not 

 moved an eyelash. Even more than the jay, is the King- 

 fisher the sentinel of tlie wooded lakes, and woe to the 

 luck of the hunter whom his keen eye detects in a 

 blind. 



His nesting place is a steep bank where he can ex- 

 cavate for himself a burrow from six to twelve feet long, 

 rising at a gentle incline and ending in a dome-shaped 

 cavity from eight to ten inches in diameter. It usually 

 takes from one to two weeks of labor to prepare this 

 subterranean home. In digging, the bird uses his heavy 



