110 NORTH AMERICAN OOLOGY. TART I. 



Family HALCYON I DiE. 



CERYLE ALCYON. 



Alcedo alcyon, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 180. 

 WiLS. Am. Orn. Ill, 1812, 59. 



" " BoNAP. Syn. 1828, p. 48. 



" " Rich. & Swains. F. B. A, II, 1831, 339. 



" " NuTTALL, Manual, I, 1832, 594. 



« « AtJD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 394 ; V, 548. 



" " NuTTALL, Manual, II, 1834, 609. 



" " AuD. Syn. 1839, p. 173. 



" " " Birdsof Am. IV, 1842, 205, pi. cclv. 



" " Lembeye, Aves de la Isla de Cuba, 1850, p. 131. 



Ispida ludoviciana, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 452. 

 Alcedo jagnacati, Dumont, Diet. Sci. Nat. I, 1816, 455. 

 Alcedo gnacu, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. XIX, 1817, 406. 

 Ccryle alcyon, Bonap. Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, p. 10. 



Cassin, Syn. N. A. Birds (Illust. Birds of Cal.), 1854, p. 354. 



VuLG. — The Belted Kingfisher. Okees-kae-mannaesheio (Cree Indians). Martin Pescador 

 (Cuba). 



This species is widely distributed, — in the breeding season throughout nearly the 

 whole North American continent. During the winter months it is found in sev- 

 eral of the more southern States. As soon as the ice has melted from northern 

 ponds and streams, it is diffused over nearly the entire Union. According to Rich- 

 ardson, it frequents all the large rivers of the Fur countries up to the sixty-seventh 

 parallel. Townsend met with it along the Missouri and Columbia rivers, and Audu- 

 bon found it in all the States from Texas to Labrador. Mr. Harris did not, how- 

 ever, meet with it on the Yellowstone, nor did Captain Stansbury in his expedition 

 to the Great Salt Lake and Utah. It is probable that but few, if any, remain to 

 breed in the extreme southern States, although they may be met with there quite 

 abundantly from September to April. 



It is not a social bird, living only in solitary pairs. It frequents the vicinity of 

 running water, and nests in holes in the banks of rivers, which it excavates with 

 much toil and labor. The place selected for this purpose is usually near a water- 

 fall or rapid, and if the stream has been made available for a mill, it is quite com- 

 mon to find them nesting near the dam. They usually select for the hole a dry 

 place, just enough above the water to be out of the reach of a freshet. It is often 

 dug through hard gravel to the depth of several feet, and is not always near Avater.' 



^ One of the most remarkable instances of the Kingfisher's nesting at a distance from water was ob- 

 served at the White Mountains in the spring of 1855. By the side of the carriage path then partially 

 constructed on Mount Washington, I found a Kingfisher's hole, nearly a mile distant from the Peabody 

 River, or any other stream of water. 



