FAMILY ALCEDINIDAE 



423 



these birds. Usually in these cases there is some small quebrada at 

 the base of the slopes nearby. As indication of nesting dates, near 

 Jaque, Darien, on March 18, 1946, a pair scolded me with rattling 

 calls when our piragua passed close by their nest hole in the river 

 bank. The following year I found them paired higher up the Rio 

 Jaque during the first 3 weeks in April. Near Sona, Veraguas, on 

 May 19 and 21, 1953, I found 1 investigating a cut bank on the 

 highway a considerable distance from any large stream. The journal 

 of Major General G. Ralph Meyer on June 15, 1941, records that 



Figure 49. — Ringed kingfisher, martin pescador grande, Ceryle torquata 

 torquata. 



he flushed 1 from a burrow dug on the north face of the bluff at 

 Diablo Heights, Canal Zone, the entrance being elevated about 3 

 meters from the base. He noted a double furrow in the floor of 

 the excavation "made presumably by the birds' feet when entering 

 and leaving, much like that of the belted Kingfisher." 



From 3 to 5 eggs are reported to constitute a set. Those of a set 

 of 4 in the British Museum (Natural History), from Bartica, Guyana, 

 collected August 25, 1925, by C. G. Young, are glossy white, and in 

 form are slightly blunt oval. They measure as follows : 43.5 X 33.7, 

 43.7x33.1, 44.6x32.8, 45.0x33.8 mm. 



In Costa Rica, Skutch (Condor, 1957, pp. 221-222) found that 

 both sexes shared in incubation, with a single daily changeover in 

 early morning. Under this arrangement each parent in turn occupied 



