140 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



CHLOROCERYLE AMERICANA SEPTENTRIONALIS (Sharpe) 

 TEXAS KINGFISHER 



Plate 16 



HABITS 



I made the acquaintance of this pretty little kingfisher when I 

 made a short visit to Cameron County, Tex., as the guest of George 

 Finlay Simmons, in May 1923. This is a most interesting bird 

 country, rich in the number of Mexican species that reach their 

 northern limits here and the only region in which some of them can 

 be found within the limits of the United States. About Browns- 

 ville the chaparral, the open prairies, the tree claims, the ponds, and 

 the swamps were all teeming with bird life of many species; but 

 perhaps the most interesting of all were the dense forests along the 

 resacas or stagnant watercourses, the old beds of rivers; these often 

 contained large trees, mesquite, huisache, ebony, palms, etc., with a 

 thick undergrowth of many shrubs and small trees, such as gran- 

 jena, persimmons, coffee bean, and bush morning-glory. Here we 

 found the characteristic birds of the region in abundance, such as 

 the chachalaca, the red-billed pigeon, the noisy derby flycatcher, the 

 brilliant green jay, and Audubon's oriole. Here, too, I was delighted 

 to see my first Texas kingfisher, as it sat on a dead fallen tree over 

 the water and then went flying away upstream, uttering its rattling 

 twitter, suggestive of but different from that of the belted kingfisher. 



Mr. Simmons (1925) says that it is "resident along clearer moun- 

 tain streams of southwest-central Texas, from Comal County south- 

 ward. * * * Occurrence depends largely on its habitat, the bird 

 requiring the clearest of waters, particularly the crystal-clear rivers 

 and brooks of the central Texas hill area; dislikes water the least 

 bit muddy; larger, clearer streams and rarely smaller ones," as well 

 as "shady little brooks," are mentioned as its favorite haunts. 



Dickey and van Rossem (1938) record this kingfisher as a "com- 

 mon resident throughout the arid Lower Tropical Zone on all fresh- 

 water lakes, streams, and marshes below 2,300 feet, and also coast- 

 wise in the mangrove belt," in El Salvador. Of its haunts they 

 say: "A favorite environment is along small, rocky streams of the 

 uplands, and in such places the population averages about a pair to 

 the mile. Wlien the young of the year are on the wing, this average 

 is considerably increased for a time. Probably the section of stream 

 inhabited by any individual pair has pretty definite limits, for 

 although individual birds or pairs show no hesitancy in keeping 

 well ahead of a person for a time, sooner or later they will make 



