BELTED KINGFISHER. 5T 
Of the notes of the barn swallow Mr. Bicknell 
says: “An almost universal misconception re- 
gards the swallows as a tribe of songless birds. 
But the barn swallow has as true claims to song 
as many species of long-established recognition as 
song birds. Its song is a low, chattering trill... 
often terminating with a clear liquid note with an 
accent as of interrogation, not unlike one of the 
notes of the canary. This song is wholly distinct 
from the quick, double-syllabled note which so 
constantly escapes the bird during flight.” 
XVI 
BELTED KINGFISHER. 
THE robin lives on neighborly terms in our 
dooryard, the swift secretes himself in our chim- 
neys, the humming-bird hovers in our gardens, 
the barn swallow circles around our barns, the 
eatbird talks to himself in our orchards, the oriole 
hangs his “ hammock” from our elms, the bobo- 
link holds gay possession of our fields till the 
mower comes to dispute his claim, and the yellow 
hammer appoints himself inspector general of our 
ant-hills, fence-posts, and tree trunks; but the 
kingfisher cares nothing for us or our habitations. 
He goes off by himself into the heart of the wil- 
derness, not to crouch among the brown leaves on 
the ground like the partridge, but to fly high and 
