CERYLE ALCYON : BELTED KINGFISHER. 



63 



favorite resorts, almost sure to be tenanted by a pair of 

 these industrious birds, whose vehement cries are not 

 less familar to the miller than the noise of his own ma- 

 chinery. The birds are really far less numerous than 

 many others less conspicuous and familiar, and usually 

 a sheet or stretch of water is fished by only a single 

 pair ; but they are large, noisy, assertive creatures, im- 

 possible to overlook, and therefore giving an impression 

 of being more abundant 

 than they really are in 

 comparison with less 

 notorious examples of 

 bird-life. They may 

 be seen either swiftly 

 winging along the 

 water-course, or hover- 

 ing and plunging into 

 the stream to rise suc- 

 cessful with a fish in the 

 beak, or perched upon 

 some isolated outpost 

 like aquatic Shrikes. 

 The harsh cry has been 

 aptly likened to the fig. 7. 



sound made by springing a watchman's rattle, and it is 

 no less startling in effect when breaking suddenly upon 

 an unexpecting ear. 



The Kingfisher is a hole-breeder, like all of its tribe. 

 Some of the many exotic species, which are less aquatic 

 and feed rather upon insects and reptiles than upon fish, 

 nest in hollows of trees ; but all the true piscivorous 

 AlccdinidcB burrow in the ground. A tunnel several — 

 four, six or eight — feet in length, either straight or 



■Kingfisher. 



