THE EINGED KINGFISHER. 41 



Mexico. It has only recently been added to our fauna, and it is doubtful if it 

 lu-eeds witliiu our borders. An adult female was shot by Mr. George B. Benners, 

 of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 2, 1888, about a mile below Laredo, 

 Texas, on the United States side of the Rio Grande. He says: "It was sittiui;- 

 on some old roots which had been washed up into a lieap by the current of the 

 river, and was shot immediately, so I did not see it ily or hear its call." Tliis 

 specimen is now in possession of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Pliiladel- 

 phia, Pennsylvania.^ 



Although moderately common, and distributed over extensive areas, very 

 little has as yet been pubHshed about the life history of this giant among 

 Kingfishers. Dr. Herman Burmeister, in his "Tliiere Ih-asiliens,"' 1856 (Vtd. I, 

 p. 415), says: "This is the largest of the American Kingfishers, and it is pretty 

 generally distributed over the warmer portions of South Americn, along tlie 

 shores of wooded streams, where it sits on limbs overhanging water, watching 

 for fish, which constitute its principal food. It nests in perpendicular banks, 

 occasionally quite a distance from water, in burrows from 5 to 6 feet deep, and 

 lays two white eggs." 



Mr. Charles W. Richmond, in his interesting paper on "Birds from Nicaragua 

 luid Costa Rica," makes the following remarks about the species: "Very com- 

 mon. This species has a note similar to tliat of C. alcyon, but somewhat stronger. 

 One morning a pair of these birds went through a very curious performance. 

 Attention was first called to them by their loud, rattling cry, which was kept up 

 almost constantly as they circled and gyrated about over the water, occasionally 

 dropping, not diving, into the water, and sinking below tlie surface for a moment. 

 This maneuvering lasted some minutes, after which hoih birds flew upstream, 

 uttering their ordinary note. 



"Two or three individuals w^ere in the habit of passing the night at some 

 point on the creek back of the 'L. P.' plantation, and came over just about 

 dusk every evening. I noticed them for several months, and was struck with 

 the regularity of their coming and the course taken by each on its way to the 

 roost. The birds could be heard a consideraljle distance away just before dusk, 

 uttering their loud, single 'chuck' at every few beats of the wings. They 

 appeared to come from their feeding grounds, often passing over the plantation 

 opposite, probably to cut off" a bend in the river. One of the birds invariably 

 passed close to the corner of the laborers' quarters, though at a considerable 

 lieight, and the other near a trumpet tree sonie distance away. The third l)ird 

 was only a casual visitor. At times the birds came together, Ijut usually there 

 was an interval of several minutes. Their routes met at a turn of the creek a 

 few rods back of the liouse, where they usually sounded their rattling notes and 

 dropped down close to the water, which they followed to tlie roost. This was 

 in a huge spreading tree, covered with parasitic plants and numerous \\nes, 

 which himg in loops and festoons from the limbs. On one occasion I shot at 

 one of the Ijirds as it came clucking overhead, and caused it to drop several 



'Tlio Auk, Vol. XI, 1891, p. 177. 



