Genus XXIV. ALCEDO. KINGFISHER. 



Species. A. ALCYON. 



BELTED KINGFISHER. 



[Plate XXIII. Fig. 1— Female] 

 Bartram, p. 289.— TuRTo.N, p. 278.* 



This is a iieneral inhabitant of the banks and shores of all our fresh- 

 water rivers from Hudson's Bay to Mexico ; and is the only species of 

 its tribe found within the United States. This last circumstance, and its 

 characteristic appearance, make it as universally known here, as its 

 elegant little brother, the common Kingfisher of Europe, is in Britain. 

 Like the love-lorn swains of whom poets tell us, he delights in murmur- 

 ing streams and falling waters ; not however merely that they may soothe 

 his ear, but for a gratification somewhat more substantial. Amidst the 

 roar of the cataract, or over the foam of a torrent, he sits perched upon 

 an overhanging bough, glancing his piercing eye in every direction be- 

 low for his scaly prey, which with a sudden circular plunge he sweeps 

 from their native element, and swallows in an instant. His voice, which 

 is not unlike the twirling of a watchman's rattle, is naturally loud, 

 harsh, and sudden ; but is softened by the sound of the brawling streams 

 and cascades among which he generally rambles. He courses along the 

 windings of the brook or river, at a small height above the surface, 

 sometimes suspending himself by the rapid action of his wings, like cer- 

 tain species of Hawks, ready to pounce on the fry below ; now and then 

 settling on an old dead overhanging limb to reconnoitre. Mill-dams are 

 particularly visited by this feathered fisher ; and the sound of his pipe 

 is as well known to the miller as the rattling of his own hopper. Rapid 

 streams, with high perpendicular banks, particularly if they be of a hard 

 clayey or sandy nature, are also favorite places of resort for this bird ; 

 not only because in such places the small fish are more exposed to view ; 

 but because those steep and dry banks are the chosen situations for his 

 nest. Into these he digs with bill and claws, horizontally, sometimes to 

 the extent of four or five feet, at the distance of a foot or two from the 

 surface. The few materials he takes in are not always placed at the 



* We add the following synonymes : — Alcedo alcyon, Linn. St/sl. ed. 10, toI. i., 



115.— Gmel. Syst. I., 451.— Lath. Ind. Orn. 257.— Catesby, i., 69.— Buff. PL 



Enl. i>9Z-7i'). 



(197) 



