EASTERN BELTED KHSTGFISHER 119 



February and April. Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in 

 August, September, and October. 



Mr. Brewster (1937a) made some observations on the roosting habits 

 of kingfishers at Umbagog Lake, Maine, of which he says: "Every 

 evening, a little after sunset, two or three Kingfishers resort to Pine 

 Point to spend the night. They fly directly into the forest and go 

 to roost among the densest foliage, often that of spruces and arbor 

 vitaes, growing anywhere from four to ten rods back from the nearest 

 shore." One that he watched "flew up into a tall, slender Paper 

 Birch, and alighted near the end of a long branch, about thirty feet 

 above the ground. * * * ^g darkness gathered, the bird settled 

 lower and lower on the branch, and drew in its neck without, how- 

 ever, burying its head in its plumage, for I could still see its bill 

 pointing outward over the breast. At 9 p. m. I went under the tree, 

 and by the light of a lantern dimly made out the Kingfisher, crouch- 

 ing in the same attitude, in exactly the same place." 



Food. — The kingfisher is a fish eater and an expert fisherman, well 

 deserving its name. It evidently prefers fish to any other food and 

 woujd probably live on fish exclusively, if it were always able to 

 secure all it needed. It catches mainly small fish, preferably not 

 over 6 inches long, and mostly those species that are of little use, 

 or even harmful, economically as far as human interests are con- 

 cerned. The kingfisher has been condemned by trout fisherman as 

 a great destroyer of trout, but in a large measure unjustly. King- 

 fishers undoubtedly visit trout hatcheries frequently and can easily 

 catch plenty of trout in the open pools, where the trout have no place 

 to hide and where they are congregated in large numbers; they can 

 do considerable damage in such places, but the trout can be easily 

 protected by placing wire screens over the pools. In the trout 

 streams wild trout are not so easily caught, for, as every trout fisher- 

 man knows, the trout are seldom seen in the open places except when 

 darting swiftly across them, but spend their time hiding under over- 

 hanging banks, or under logs or stones, and only dashing out occa- 

 sionally to capture their prey. On the other hand, chubs, dace, suck- 

 ers, and sometimes sculpins are very common in most trout streams, 

 generally in larger numbers than the trout; they frequent the open 

 spaces, are much slower in their movements than the swiftly moving 

 trout, and consequently are more easily caught. The records show 

 that these neutral or harmful fishes make up the greater part, or 

 nearly all, of the kingfisher's catch in trout streams. Chub and scul- 

 pins are very destructive to small trout fry ; and suckers eat quanti- 

 ties of trout spawn; consequently the kingfishers are really doing the 

 trout fisherman a favor by reducing the numbers of these fishes in the 

 streams and should be protected rather than persecuted. 



