242 BIRDS OF OXTAUia 



Suborder ALCYONES. Kingfishers. 



■ Family ALCEDINID^. Kingfishers. 



Genus CERYLE Boie. 



Subgenus STREPTOCERYLE Bonaparte. 



CERYLE ALCYON (Linn.). 



170. Belted Kingfisher. (390) 



Upper parts, broad pectoral bai-, and sides under wings, dull blue with tine 

 black shaft lines ; lower eye-lid, spot before eye, a cei'vical collar and under 

 parts, except as said, pure white ; the female with a chestnut belly Imnd, and 

 the sides of the same color ; quills and tail feathers, ])lack, speckled, blotched 

 and barred with white on the inner webs ; outer webs of the secondaries and 

 tail feathers, like the Ijack ; wing coverts, frequently sprinkled with Mhite ; 

 bill, black, pale at the base below ; feet, dark. Length, 12 or more ; wing, 

 about 6 ; tail, Sg ; whole foot, 1 ^ ; bill, about, 2;^. 



Hab. — North America, south to Panama and the West Indies. 



Nest, none. 



Eggs, six to eight, white, ileposited in an enlargement at the end of a 

 tunnel, four to eight feet deep, dug liy the bird into a sand bank or gravel pit. 



The Kingfisher is general!}' distributed throughout Ontario. It 

 arrives early in April, and sot)n makes its presence known by its 

 loud, rattling cry, as it dashes along and perches on a horizontal 

 bough overhanging the river. On some such point of observation it 

 usually waits and watches for its scaly prey, but when passing ovei- 

 open water of greater extent, it is often observed to check its course, 

 hover hawk-like at some distance above the surface, and then dasli 

 into the water after the manner of a Tern. If a fish be secured, it is 

 carried in the bill to some convenient perch, on which it is hammered 

 till dead, and then swallowed head downwards. 



The Kingfisher is a strong flier, and is sometimes seen careering at 

 a considerable height, as if for exercise. 



Although many of them breed throughout Ontario, numljers pro- 

 ceed much farther north. In Manitoba and the North- West they 

 occur in all suitable places, and in Alaska they are found along the 

 entire course of the Yukon River, reaching the shores of Behring 

 Sea. They have also been taken at Sitka, and frequent all the clear 

 streams of the interior, nesting as they do elsewhere, in a deep 

 burrow in a bank dug out by themselves. 



They are not sensitive to cold, for in open seasons I have seen 

 them remaining till January, but when the frost forces the fish to 

 retire to deep water, the Kingfisher's supply of food is cut off, and 

 he has to move to the south. 



