OF NEW ENGLAND. 305 
daringly pugnacious, yet they are known to congregate occa- 
sionally in flocks, chiefly during the migrations. Though they 
are apparently very hardy, yet they have never, I believe, been 
successfully kept in confinement for a longer period than a few 
months. The principal obstacles in rearing them are the in- 
juries which they receive, if allowed to fly about a room, their 
suffering from cold, and the difficulty of providing proper food, 
since any prepared syrup apparently does not satisfy them ex- 
cept when young. 
(d). Their only note is a chirp, which immediately suggests 
the voice of an insect. 
No birds are more generally beloved and. admired than our 
Hummingbirds, and America may well boast of a treasure 
which no other country possesses. 
§23. Alcedinide. Iingjishers. (See § 22.) 
I, CERYLE 
(A) aucyon. Belted Kingfisher. Kingfisher. 
(A resident of New England in summer, and occasionally 
in winter.) 
(a). About 121 inches long. Upper parts,. sides, and a 
breast-band, ashy-blue. Head-feathers darker, forming a loose 
crest, and giving a rough outline to the hind-head. Wings and 
tail also partly darker, and white-spotted. Broad collar (in- 
terrupted behind), lower breast, etc., white. The latter in 9 
with a band (often imperfect) of a chestnut-color, which ex- 
tends along the sides, and sometimes mixes with the band 
above.’ 
(b). From the abundant evidence recently offered on the 
subject of the nest, and from my own limited experience, it 
may be gathered that it varies in length, though sometimes 
nine feet long, that it may be either straight or have a bend, 
and that it is rarely lined at the end, except with fish-bones, 
as is sometimes the case. That the Kingfishers always make 
7“*Several specimens in the Smithsonian collection marked female (perhaps 
erroneously) show no indication of the chestnut.” 
21 
