KINGFISHERS. 317 



d. Their only note is a chirp ^ which immediately suggests 

 the voice of an insect. 



No birds are more generally beloved and admired than our 

 Hummingbirds, and America may well boast of a treasure 

 which no other country possesses. 



§ 23. ALCEDINID^. Kingfishers. (See § 22.) 



I. CERYLE. 



A. ALCYON. Belted Kingfisher. Kingfisher. A resi- 

 dent of New England in summer, and occasionally in winter.* 



a. About 12^ inches long. Upper parts, sides, and a 

 breast-band, ashy blue. Head-feathers, darker, forming a 

 loose crest, and giving a rough outline to the hind-head. 

 Wings and tail also partly darker, and white-spotted. Broad 

 collar (interrupted behind), lower breast, etc., white. The 

 latter in 2 with a band (often imperfect) of a chestnut 

 color, which extends along the sides, and sometimes mixes 

 with the band above. ^^^ 



h. From the abundant evidence recently offered on the 

 subject of the nest, and from my own limited experience, it 

 may be gathered that it varies in length, though sometimes 

 nine feet long, that it may be either straight or have a bend, 

 and that it is rarely lined at the end, except with fish-bones, 

 as is sometimes the case. That the Kingfishers always make 

 a hurroiD in a bank of sand or gravel, in which to lay their 

 eggs, and that they most often do so near water, and not far 

 from the ground, are undisputed facts. The eggs of each set 

 are six or seven, average 1.35 X 1-05 of an inch, and are 

 pure white. 



c. Tlie Belted Kingfisher is well known, and " in the sum- 

 mer is found in every portion of North America, to the Arc- 

 tic Ocean on the north, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific." ^^^ 



*A common summer resident US " ggyeral specimens in the Smith- 

 throughout New Eng-land, breeding sonian collection marked female (per- 

 nearly everywhere, but most numer- haps erroneously) show no indication 

 ously about the borders of lakes and of the chestnut." 



streams in the more northern parts of ^^^ Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Ridg- 



the country. It occasionally passes the way's North American Birds. 

 winter in southern New England. — 

 W. B. 



