394 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



served tliem to be present, althougli the river was not yet open. Those 

 that have migrated to the south make their reappearance in spring through- 

 out the continent as soon as, and not unfrequently before, the ice has disap- 

 peared from the rivers and ponds. 



It occurs in extreme northern latitudes. Mr. MacFarLane received skins 

 from the Eskimos obtained on the Arctic coast, and Mr. Dall found them 

 breeding at Fort Yukon, where it was quite common on all the small streams 

 flowing into that river. It was also found by Dr. Eichardson frequenting 

 all the large streams of the fur countries, as far at least as the 67th parallel. 

 In California a larger race than our Atlantic species is found abundantly 

 along the coast, and about nearly every stream or lake in which the water 

 is not turbid and muddy. 



Mr. A. Newton reports this bird as a winter visitant at St. Croix, leaving 

 the island late in April. It frequents mangrove swamps and the mouths 

 of small streams, sometimes fishing half a mile out at sea. The stomach of 

 one contained shells of crabs. The occurrence of two specimens of this 

 species in Ireland is recorded by Mr. Thompson. 



The Kingfisher is an eminently unsocial species. It is never found other 

 than in solitary pairs, and these are very rarely seen together. They feed 

 almost entirely upon fish, which they capture by plunging into the water, 

 and which they always swallow whole on emerging from their bath. Un- 

 digested portions of their food, such as scales, bones, etc., they have the 

 power of occasionally ejecting from their stomachs. They may usually be 

 noticed by the side of streams, mill-ponds, and lakes, stationed on some con- 

 venient position that enables them to overlook a deep place suitable for 

 their purpose, and they rarely make a plunge without accomplishing their 

 object. 



The cry of the Kingfisher, uttered when he is disturbed, or when moving 

 from place to place, and occasionally just as he is about to make a plunge, 

 is loud and harsh, and resembles the noise made by a watchman's rattle. 

 Tliis noise he makes repeatedly at all hours, and most especially at night, 

 during the breeding- season, whenever he returns to the nest with food for 

 his mate or young. 



They nest in deep holes excavated by themselves in the sides of streams, 

 ponds, or cliffs, not always in the immediate vicinity of water. These ex- 

 cavations are often near their accustomed fishing-grounds, in some neighbor- 

 ing bank, usually not many feet from the ground, always in dry gravel, and 

 sufficiently high to be in no danger of inundation. They make their 

 burrow with great industry and rapidity, relieving one another from time 

 to time, and working incessantly until the result is satisfactorily accom- 

 pli.slied. When digging through a soft fine sand-bank their progress is 

 surprising, sometimes making a deep excavation in a single night. The 

 pages of " The American Naturalist " contain several animated contro- 

 versies as to the depth, the shape, and the equipments of these passages. 



