132 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



banks. In size these holes were on an average four inches wide and 

 three inches high at the entrance. Those investigated went straight 

 back into the bank, in one case as far as six feet. This particular 

 burrow then may have made a turn, but it was not dug out." 



Alexander F. Skutch has very kindly lent me his unpublished 

 manuscript for a proposed work on the birds of the Caribbean low- 

 lands of Central America, which contains much interesting infor- 

 mation on this species, from which I shall quote freely. He says 

 that, in that region, these kingfishers "begin the excavation of their 

 burrows in February, if not earlier. Their nesting is of necessity 

 limited to the drier season when the rivers are lowest, which in this 

 region extends from February to the end of May. The flood waters 

 of June often undermine and eat away the banks in which they 

 nest, if they do not actually rise high enough to flood their tunnels. 

 Since they begin the excavation of their burrows early and raise a 

 single brood each year, they proceed with their task in a leisurely 

 fashion, and one may watch long and in vain for them to return to 

 their work. 



"One morning toward the end of February I concealed myself in 

 a blind before a burrow in a bank of sandy loam beside the Rio 

 Morja, near the boundary between Guatemala and Honduras. The 

 tunnel was already well advanced and went far beneath the banana 

 plants at the top of the bank, which had been freshly cut when the 

 river ate into the plantation at the last high water. Although I 

 began the watch early in the morning, it was 11 o'clock before I 

 heard the measured hlech Meek kleck^ and turning saw one of the 

 pair approaching from upstream. It soon entered the burrow and 

 remained within several minutes, appearing not to notice the rough- 

 winged swallow that fluttered before the tunnel and several times 

 rested in the entrance while it was busy inside. On emerging, the 

 kingfisher perched atop a banana leaf and kept up a running con- 

 versation in low rattles with its mate, out of sight around the bend 

 up-river. In five minutes it flew upstream to join the other, calling 

 with a loud kleck kleck kleck. 



"Soon the pair returned together and began to work in earnest. 

 Each time one entered the burrow there was a jet of earth thrown 

 out behind. As the bird moved inward the jet fell short of the en- 

 trance until it could be seen no more. Doubtless the bird continued 

 to kick the earth back until it reached the head of the excavation, 

 and so the material loosened by the bill was gradually pushed out of 

 the tunnel. The kingfishers invariably emerged head first, indicat- 

 ing that the burrow had reached its final length and had begun to 

 widen at the far end into the nesting chamber. The bird inside 

 called in low klecks^ which were answered by the mate perched on a 



