136 WOODPECKERS. 



Belted Kingfisher, familiar by voice and appearance to 



every one wlio lives near a river or pond. He comes 



Belted Kingfisher, i^^ ^^P^'il. ^lien tlie ice no longer cov- 



L'lnjii: ah'i/oii. ers liis luuiting ground, and remains 



Fiate XX 111. until Xovembcr ; or, if the season be 



exceptionally^ mild, he sometimes stays for the winter 



fishing. His nest is built in a hole in a bank, where, 



early in May, his mate lays from five to eight white 



eggs. 



The Kingfisher is generally branded a fish thief and 

 accounted a fair mark for every man with a gun, and, 

 were it not for his discretion in judging distances and 

 knowing just when to fly, he would long ago have disap- 

 peared from the haunts of man. AVe might now be a 

 few fish richer, but would they repay us for the loss of 

 this genius of wooded shores ? 



WOODPECKERS AND WRYNECKS. (ORDER PICI.) 



Woodpeckers. (Family Picid^e.) 



The three hundred and fifty known species of "Wood- 

 peckers are represented in all the wooded parts of the 

 world except the Australian region and Madagascar. 

 IN^early one half this number are found in the JSTew 

 World, and of these twenty -five occur in North America. 



Few birds seem better adapted to their mode of life 

 than Woodpeckers, the structure of their bill, tongue, 

 tail, and feet l)eing admirably suited to their needs. 



The notes of Woodpeckers can not be termed musical, 

 and their chief contribution to the springtime chorus is a 

 rolling tattoo which resembles the Ix-r-r-r-ring call of the 

 tree frogs. The feathered drummer selects a resonant 

 limb and pounds out his song with a series of strokes de- 



