102 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



an old stub or decaying tree, and readily excavate a hole 

 or dress up a cavity in the same to suit, and where suita- 

 ble trees are not convenient to their chosen homes, they 

 will chip through cornices and into nooks in outbuild- 

 ings in fact, take possession of most any dark, suitable 

 cavity. Eggs usually five to seven; a much larger num- 

 ber have occasionally been found, but in such cases I am 

 inclined to think other females assisted, although, when 

 robbed of the egg as laid, the bird will often continue lay- 

 ing to the number of twenty and upward. They vary 

 much in size. Ridgway says, 1.10x.85 ; I make the 

 average dimensions of a few sets to be 1.06x.84; pure 

 pearly white; in form, rather elliptical to oblong ovate. 

 A set collected May llth, 1878, at Pewaukee, Wisconsin, 

 only measure: l.OOx.81, 1.03x.80, 1.03x.82, 1.05x.82. 



XXIX. BELTED KINGFISHER. 



Ceryle alcyon (LiNN.). 



A common summer resident, and when the winters 

 are mild, an occasional resident. Begin laying about the 

 last of April. 



HABITAT. The whole of North America; south to 

 Panama, including the West Indies. 



The birds >ary somewhat in size; specimens examined, 

 however, show the females fully as large as the males. 



Iris dark brown; bill black, or rather slate, with sides 

 of upper to nostrils, and forks of under, pale blue; legs 

 dull purple to greenish blue; feet dusky, bottoms pale, 

 with a slight yellowish hue ; claws black. 



This widely distributed and solitary species appears 

 to be as much at home in the Arctic regions as within the 



