The Birds’ Calendar 
Like the night heron, the green heron win- 
ters in the south, and in summer is widely 
spread over the United States and beyond, liv- 
ing in secluded places near the water. 
Another bird hovering about the water, which 
the casual observer would suppose could be 
reckoned among the water-fowl with much the 
same propriety as the herons (a classification 
which I suppose is forbidden by their interior 
anatomy, or perhaps by the length of the hind 
toe) is the belted kingfisher. This bird is fully 
a foot long, blue above, white beneath, with a 
bluish band across the breast. It is a familiar 
sight throughout the whole of North America 
in summer, frequenting rivers, lakes, and ponds, 
from which it obtains its food, which is chief- 
ly small fish, for the capture of which it will 
sometimes plunge fully under water. Ungain- 
ly in appearance when perching, it retrieves 
its reputation by a graceful and rapid manner 
of flight. 
The confused character of the present system 
of grouping birds is nowhere exhibited more 
strikingly than in the relegation of kingfish- 
ers, along with humming-birds, night hawks, 
cuckoos, woodpeckers, and chimney swallows, 
to an Order called Picariz, ‘‘ established,’’ as 
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