THE CUCKOOS, ETC. 157 



at times and seize large butterflies, and when the 

 broad wings of the victims flop about the captor's 

 head, it is very amusing to see the bird try to reach 

 the tree from which it flew. This is not accomplished 

 in the most graceful manner at all times. 



Passing by the Trogons and Motmots, that are 

 more birds of Mexico than of the United States, we 

 come to the Kingfisher as next in order, there being 

 but one species in 

 the United States as 

 a whole, and the 

 Texan Kingfisher, 

 which is found only 

 in a limited area on 

 our southwestern 

 borders. 



In the Middle Kingfisher. 



States the Common 



Kingfisher is both resident and migratory. When it 

 remains in winter it sometimes roosts in the nest 

 that was occupied during the preceding summer, but 

 more frequently takes refuge in some sheltered nook 

 of an old grist-mill, and fasts when the ice is over 

 all the open water ; but this is very seldom the case. 

 In April those that migrated have returned, and the 

 curious cry of the bird is a common feature of every 

 locality where there is water. Nuttall speaks of it 

 as " retiring," but I have found them of late emi- 

 nently sociable. Many are found in remote locali- 

 ties, but this is because the fishing is good and not 

 because mankind is more or less remote. It is a 

 bird, of late, of our mill-ponds, and if there were 

 14 



