192 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



BELTED KINGFISHER 



April 24, 1854. The kingfisher flies with a crack 

 cr-r-r-ack and a limping oi' flitting flight from tree 

 to tree before us, and finally, after a third of a mile, 

 circles round to our rear. He sits rather low over the 

 water. Now that he has come I suppose that the fishes 

 on which he preys rise within reach. 



April 15, 1855. Saw and heard a kingfisher — do 

 they not come with the smooth waters of April? — hur- 

 rying over the meadow as if on urgent business. 



April 22, 1855. The bluish band on the breast of the 

 kingfisher leaves the pure white beneath in the form of 

 a heart. 



April 11, 1856. Saw a kingfisher on a tree over the 

 water. Does not its arrival mark some new movement 

 in its finny prey ? He is the bright buoy that betrays it ! 



July 28, 1858. Heard a kingfisher, which had been 

 hovering over the river, plunge forty rods off. 



Aug. 6, 1858. The kingfisher is seen hovering stead- 

 ily over one spot, or hurrying away with a small fish in 

 his mouth, sounding his alarum nevertheless. 



HAIRY WOODPECKER 



April 9, 1855. Heard a loud, long, dry, tremulous 

 shriek which reminded me of a kingfisher, but which I 

 found proceeded from a woodpecker which had just 

 alighted on an elm ; also its clear whistle or chinJc 

 afterward. It is probably the hairy woodpecker, and I 

 am not so certain I have seen it earlier this year.* 



1 [The kingfisher-like rattle is diagnostic of the hairy woodpecker.] 



