TEXAS KINGFISHER 141 



every effort to break back along the route to the places from where 

 they were first started. Salt water is apparently not greatly to 

 their liking, and in the mangrove lagoons they were decidedly un- 

 common. Scarcity of suitable nesting sites may, however, be in part 

 responsible for this condition." 



Alexander F. Skutch found this kingfisher on small streams as 

 high as 7,000 feet above sea level in the highlands of Guatemala, 

 and writes (MS.) of its haunts: "While toiling over the rocky bed 

 of some narrow torrent rushing down a mountain valley, where the 

 huge trees arch overhead and shut out the sky, I have often heard a 

 pleasant cheep and turned to watch the solitary figure of a green 

 kingfisher fly swiftly past, low above the water and following all 

 the twistings of the channel, until lost in the depth of the forest. 

 While his larger relatives require deeper water and a longer drop, 

 he is often content to plunge from the top of a boulder projecting a 

 foot or so above a shallow channel, and fishes on the smaller streams 

 from which they are absent; but he joins them on the bro.ader and 

 more sluggish waterways. He rarely hovers above the water in the 

 manner of the larger kingfishers." 



Nesting. — The first account of the nesting of the Texas kingfisher 

 is by William Brewster (1879), who writes: "This beautiful little 

 Kingfisher was found by Mr. Werner in comparative abundance at 

 several points in Comal County, notably about some of the springs 

 that empty into the Guadaloupe Kiver. A set of six eggs, taken 

 April 25, 1878, was authenticated by the capture of both parent birds, 

 the female being caught on the nest. * * * The nesting cavity 

 was in a sandy bank near the water's edge. The eggs were laid on the 

 bare sand, no fish bones or other extraneous material being near. 

 The entrance was not quite 1% inches in diameter, and the hole 

 extended inward from the face of the bank about 3i^ feet." 



Bendire (1895) says: 



The nests of many of these little Kingfishers are yearly destroyed by high 

 water flooding their burrows, caused by heavy rains and cloud-bursts, which 

 are more or less prevalent in southern and western Texas. It is not uncommon 

 on both the Medina and San Antonio rivers, and a nesting site on the last- 

 mentioned stream found by Mr. C. H. Kearny, in the spring of 1892, containing 

 six fresh eggs, is described by him as being located in a bank about 15 feet high 

 and about 5 feet above the water level. The nesting chamber, which was slightly 

 larger than the tunnel leading to it, was placed about 2 feet from the mouth of 

 the hole. There was no nest proper, but a few fish bones and scales were 

 scattered about the eggs. In the same bank a number of Bank Swallows 

 (CUvicola riparia) had taken up temporary homes, and one of their holes was 

 located within a foot of that of the Kingfishers. They are devoted parents, 

 and these birds will usually allow themselves to be caught rather than forsake 

 their eggs. 



