THE Cuckoos, Etc. 157 
at times and seize large butterflies, and when the 
broad wings of the victims flop about the captor’s 
head, it is very amusing to see the bird try to reach 
the tree from which it flew. This is not accomplished 
in the most graceful manner at all times. 
Passing by the Trogons and Motmots, that are 
more birds of Mexico than of the United States, we 
come to the Kingfisher as next in order, there being 
but one species in 
the United States as 
a whole, and the 
Texan Kingfisher, 
which is found only 
in a limited area on 
our southwestern 
borders. 
In the Middle  vagisneiee: 
States the Common 
Kingfisher is both resident and migratory. When it 
remains in winter it sometimes roosts in the nest 
that was occupied during the preceding summer, but 
more frequently takes refuge in some sheltered nook 
of an old grist-mill, and fasts when the ice is over 
all the open water; but this is very seldom the case. 
In April those that migrated have returned, and the 
curious cry of the bird is a common feature of every 
locality where there is water. Nuttall speaks of it 
as “retiring,” but I have found them of late emi- 
nently sociable. Many are found in remote locali- 
ties, but this is because the fishing is good and not 
because mankind is more or less remote. It is a 
bird, of late, of our mill-ponds, and if there were 
14 

