RINGED KINGFISHER 13 



RINGED KINGFISHER 



Ceryle torquata 



Above greyish blue with narrow black shaft-stripes and small round 

 white spots ; wings black with a portion of the inner webs towards 

 the base white, tail black barred with white ; beneath chestnut-red ; 

 throat and belly white ; length 15 inches. Female similar but with 

 broad blue pectoral band. 



THIS beautiful bird, the largest of the American 

 Kingfishers, is found throughout the greater portion 

 of South and Central America. In Argentina it is 

 not common but is widely distributed and is known 

 both in Buenos Ayres and Patagonia* In southern 

 Patagonia it varies in colour and is of a slatey grey- 

 blue on the upper parts, thickly sprinkled like a 

 guinea-fowl with minute round white spots, hence 

 the specific name stellata, bestowed on it by some 

 ornithologists who regard it as a separate species. 



Notwithstanding its wide distribution and great 

 beauty, little has been recorded of the habits of this 

 species. In Amazonia, Bartlett says, " it breeds in 

 company with Ceryle amazona. The nest, however, 

 is placed very much deeper in the bank than in the 

 case of the last-named bird, the hole being from four 

 to six feet in depth, with a chamber at the end 

 sufficiently large for the young birds when nearly 

 full-grown/' 



Two other species of Kingfishers range as far 

 south as the Buenos Ayres pampas. The first, a 

 third less in size than the Ringed Kingfisher, is the 



