O14 LAND BIRDS 
Breeding Season: In California, April and May. 
Nest: An excavation 6 to 12 feet long, in a bank, usually over water. - 
Eggs: 4to 8; white. Size 1.35 X 1.08. 
ALONG the streams of the interior valleys of California 
the Belted Kingfisher lives, the only requisite for his 
happiness being sufficient water to furnish his necessary 
supply of small fish. No fresh-water pond or brook is 
complete without him. Unsocial and even quarrelsome, 
he is usually seen sitting alone on a low perch over- 
hanging the water, waiting in silence for the gleam of a 
fin. Suddenly out he dashes, hovers above the waves 
a moment, then plunges down to reappear with a strug- 
gling fish in his bill and fly to a different perch to de- 
vour it. Should he wait long with no success, he flies 
to another fishing ground a few yards away, uttering his 
harsh rattle; for he is angry, and wants the world to 
know it. This cry of anger rings loud and clear when 
he sees you watching him, and all the woodfolk take 
warning at it. A deer will stop drinking instantly on 
hearing it and break for cover, although you have not 
moved an eyelash. Even more than the jay, is the King- 
fisher the sentinel of the wooded lakes, and woe to the 
luck of the hunter whom his keen eye detects in a 
blind. 
His nesting place is a steep bank where he can ex- 
cavate for himself a burrow from six to twelve feet long, 
rising at a gentle incline and ending in a dome-shaped 
cavity from eight to ten inches in diameter. It usually 
takes from one to two weeks of labor to prepare this 
subterranean home. In digging, the bird uses his heavy 
