166 



USEFUL BIRDS 



pecker, which is one of our most useful l)ircls. is under 7 inches in 

 length and has a scarlet band on the back of the head in the male — 

 not on the crown. ( )n account of its small size and difference of 

 coloration, it need not be confused with the species under discussion. 



THE BELTED KINGFISHER. 





The above virile picture gives an excellent idea of the appear- 

 ance of this vivacious, noisy, and, it must l)e confessed, at times in- 

 jurious bird. Naturally a lover of wood-bordered streams and 

 ponds, its noisy rattle is a fit accompaniment to the sound of run- 

 ning water and it is here that it takes frequent toll of fish which 

 might otherwise have lived to fill the angler's creel. I^^ish in ponds 

 and streams, therefore, suffer as a result of its rapacious appetite, 

 but its depredations become of marked importance when it habitu- 

 ally takes its food from ])onds or streams of those who raise trout 

 on a commercial scale. Frequently, the shot gun is used by the fish- 

 breeder in self-defense; or taking advantage of the bird's habit of 

 frequenting a perch over the water, whence it can see its prey be- 

 low the surface, a steel tra\) is placed on the top of an upright 

 pole planted in the pond and the marauder captured therein. Its 

 white eggs are placed at the end of a long Inirrow in some bank 

 near the water. 



