RINGED KINGFISHER 137 



at length I was ready to leave, she had begun to beat her fish against 

 the limb, although it must have been dead long since. After this ex- 

 hibition of stolidity, I no longer felt sorry for the ringed kingfishers 

 because the customs of their race obliged them to sit on the nest for 

 such long periods." 



Behavior. — Dr. Charles W. Eichmond (1893) found this species 

 very common in Nicaragua and Costa Eica, and he writes of its 

 habits : 



One morning a pair of tliese birds went tlirough a very curious performance. 

 Attention was first called to them by their loud rattling cry, which was kept 

 up almost constantly as they circled and gyrated about over the water, oc- 

 casionally dropping — not diving — into the water, and sinking below the surface 

 for a moment. This maneuvering lasted some minutes, after which both birds 

 flew upstream uttering their ordinary note. 



Two or three individuals were in the habit of passing the night at some 

 point on the creek back of the "I. P." plantation, and came over just about 

 dusk every evening. I noticed them for several mouths, and was struck with 

 the regularity of their coming, and the course taken by each on its way to the 

 roost. The birds could be heard a considerable distance away, just before 

 dusk, uttering their loud single "chuck" at every few beats of the wings. 

 They appeared to come from their feeding grounds, often passing over the 

 plantation opposite, probably to cut off a bend in the river. One of the birds 

 invariably passed close to the corner of the laborers' quarters, though at con- 

 siderable height, and the other near a trumpet tree some distance away. The 

 third bird was only a casual visitor. At times the birds came together, but 

 usually there was an interval of several minutes. Their routes met at a turn 

 of the creek a few rods back of the house, where they usually sounded their 

 rattling notes and dropped down close to the water, which they followed to 

 the roost. This was a huge spreading tree, covered with parasitic plants and 

 numerous vines, which hung in loops and festoons from the limbs. On one 

 occasion I shot at one of the birds as it came clucking overhead, and caused 

 it to drop several small fish. A female nearly ready to deposit eggs was sliot 

 October 9. 



Referring to the behavior of ringed kingfishers, Mr. Skutch (MS.) 

 writes: "Watercourses are their highways, and, like men, they are 

 frequently reluctant to leave them. One day, ascending in a motor 

 launch the Toloa Creek in Honduras, we drove a ringed kingfisher 

 before us for possibly a mile. Each time the boat approached he 

 would leave his perch, fly a few hundred feet ahead, and finally 

 alight in a branch overhanging the stream. Here he would wait 

 until the launch was almost opposite him, then fly ahead of it a few 

 hundred feet more. Only after this procedure had been repeated 

 many times did he finally double over the bank and return down- 

 stream." 



He noticed, while studying the program of nest I'elief, that these 

 kingfishers "showed a certain amount of formalism in their natures." 

 One morning while he was on watch, "at 7 : 30 the male emerged 



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