EASTERN BELTED KINGFISHER 113 



there is no evidence to indicate that the birds ever bring in such 

 material intentionally. 

 Bendire (1895) writes: 



The time required to dig out a burrow depends largely on the nature of the 

 soil to be removed, taking sometimes two or three weeks, but generally much 

 less. I have personally seen an instance where a pair of these birds excavated 

 a new burrow in a rather friable clay bank near Fort Lapwni, Idaho, to a 

 depth of 5 feet (estimated measurement) in a little over three days. How they 

 managed to dig so rapidly, considering their short and weak-looking feet, with 

 which they must remove the greater part of the material, has always been a 

 mystery to me, and I would not believe them capable of accomplishing such an 

 amount of work had I not seen it done. When not disturbed the same nesting 

 site is resorted to from year to year. Sometimes the male burrows an addi- 

 tional hole near the occupied nesting site, usually not over 3 feet deep, to which 

 it retires to feed and to pass the night. 



Dr. Thomas S. Eoberts (1932) published the following account on 

 the authority of Miss Frances Densmore, of Red Wing, Minn. : 



On April 25, 1928, I found a pair of Kingfishers digging their tunnel at the 

 top of a high cut about a foot below the surface, just where the black loam 

 met the under sand, some one hundred feet, or thereabouts, above the water. 

 They both dug, taking turn and turn about, except when she thought he hadn't 

 stayed in long enough and sent him back. After watching them for an hour 

 or more I formed a theory as to how they managed it. One would go in and 

 work for tv.'o or three minutes and then push the dirt ahead of it to the en- 

 trance and fly out over it. No dirt ever came out with the bird that had been 

 digging, but when the other went in there was a veritable fountain spurting 

 out for nearly a minute after it entered. Then this subsided and more digging 

 was done by the bird that had cleared the hole. They kept very close to their 

 schedule of two or three minutes each. On this day the dirt they brought out 

 was sand, but on the 27th it was black loam from above, and I decided that 

 they had got back to their "sitting room." On May 1 they weren't working 

 and, as both were in and out at the same time, I judged that there was room 

 to turn and that they would call it done. 



Dr. A. K. Fisher wrote to Major Bendire (1895) as follows: 



On June 6, 1882, the writer found two nests of the Kingfisher in the side of a 

 railroad cut near Croton Lake, Westchester County, New York. The burrows 

 were placed in a bank not over 7 feet above the roadbed and within 18 inches 

 of the top. That of the first one ran in about 7 feet and turned to the right 

 as it entered the nesting chamber. The seven fresh eggs were placed in a 

 nest of coarse grass, which, although rather scanty, covered the floor of the cav- 

 ity on all sides. The burrow of tlie second one extended in about 4y2 feet, 

 and, like the other previously mentioned, turned toward the right as the 

 expanded nesting cavity was reached. The nest, which was quite elaborate, 

 was composed wholly of fish scales and bones, arranged in a compact, saucer- 

 shaped mass. The writer made a tunnel from the top of the bank so as to 

 intercept the burrow as it entered the nesting cavity. Viewed through this 

 hole, the nest was a beautiful affair. The scales, which looked as if made 

 of frosted silver, formed a delicate setting for the six pure-white eggs lying 

 in the center, and by the projected light made a most effective picture. On two 

 occasions, near Sing Sing, New York, the writer found the Kingfisher and 



