KINGFISHER 485 
loses all these belligerent habits, and becomes comparatively quite 
a quiet bird. His diet seems to be confined entirely to various 
kinds of insects, of which he destroys vast quantities, that would 
otherwise be destructive to the products of the farm.' Indeed, he 
is one of the husbandman’s best friends, and in his tastes for bees 
at a certain season of the year it is not yet proven to the contrary 
that he selects only the drones upon which to regale himself. 
In appearance the King-bird is a species of plain plumage, 
and the sexes are nearly alike. Above he is black, most intense 
on the crown, where we also find a semiconcealed, longitudinal, 
median dash of flame-coloured feathers, capable of erection, as a 
crest, with the rest of the capital plumage. Below he is nearly 
white, and his black tail is strongly tipped with the same. 
Laterally, the white of the breast is shaded with plumbeous, and 
his wings are dusky, bordered with whitish. He has a peculiar 
wavering flight, something after the manner of certain small 
Hawks; while song he has none, possessing only the twittering 
note to which allusion has already been made, and which at times 
is very shrill, being heard at some considerable distance. This 
bird builds a large, compact nest of twigs, lined with fine grass, 
and other materials interspersed throughout, as tow and fine roots. 
The place chosen may be quite conspicuous, as in a low tree near 
the wayside, or without regard to concealment in the middle of 
the orchard, as in an apple-tree. Usually from four to six, the 
eggs are of a creamy white, boldly dashed with elegant blotches of 
various shades of brown, which chiefly encircle the larger end. 
It may with great truth be said, then, that on the whole the 
King-bird is not only an interesting and handsome species, but 
thoroughly deserving of our protection and encouragement, as he 
is likewise useful and brave. R. W. SHUFELDT. 
KINGFISHER— Konigsfischer, Germ.” ; Roi-péheux (= pécheur), 
Walloon—the <Alcedo ispida of ornithologists, one of the most 
beautiful and well-known of European birds, being found, though 
nowhere very abundantly, in every country of this quarter of the 
globe, as well as in North Africa and South-Western Asia as far as 
Sindh. Its blue-green back and rich chestnut breast render it con- 
spicuous as it frequents the streams and ponds whence it procures 
its food, by plunging almost perpendicularly into the water, and 
emerging a moment after with the prey—whether a small fish, a 
crustacean, or an aquatic insect—it has captured. In hard frosts 
1 Other authorities state. that at times the King-bird is very fond of certain 
berries, especially blackberries, but I have not been able to personally verify 
this. 
2 But more commonly called Hisvogel, which finds its counterpart in the 
Anglo-Saxon Jsern or Jsen. 
