826 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



Their mating, nesting and other habits are substantially the same 

 as the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. They build insecure nests, and lay 

 irregularly. A nest may be seen with a fresh egg, one ready to hatch, 

 and a young bird well fledged. Nests may be found from early May 

 well through the summer. A set of eggs in the collection of the 

 United States Museum was taken near Mt. Carmel, 111., May 7, 1878 

 (Bendire, L. H., N. A. Birds, II., p. 29). The eggs must have been 

 laid with little time intervening. Usually considerable interval 

 elapses between the laying of each egg, and incubation begins soon 

 after the first one is laid. Sometimes, however, an egg is laid each 

 day. Both sexes incubate. Prof. A. J. Cook mentions four taken 

 at St. Clair Flats, July 20, 1893 (Birds of Mich., p. 86). Mr. J. F. 

 Clearwaters found a nest, containing two fresh eggs, in a willow 

 thicket, near Michigan City, August 13, 1891. Some years most of the 

 birds have left at that date. The nest of the Black-billed Cuckoo is, 

 perhaps, a little more substantial than that of the Yellow-billed. Its 

 eggs are smaller, and a deeper shade of green. 



Its food is much the same as that of the last species. Prof. Forbes 

 informs us that 75 per cent, of the food of some he examined contained 

 canker-worms (Eept. Mich. Hort. Soc., 1891, p. 204). Prof. F. H. King 

 says 13 ate 13 hymenoptera, 68 caterpillars, 10 beetles, 26 orthoptera, 

 and 2 harvestmen (Geol. of Wis.,Vol. 1,1883, p. 568). Prof. Beal notes 

 that 16 taken during the summer months ate 328 caterpillars, 11 

 beetles, 15 grasshoppers, 63 sawflies, 3 stink bugs, and 4 spiders 

 (Farmers' Bulletin, No. 54, U. S. Dept. Agr., p. 5). Almost entirely 

 do they eat injurious insects, and their work is distinctively beneficial, 

 because they eat so largely of those hairy, destructive caterpillars that 

 other birds do not choose for food. Its common note is a soft coo- 

 coo-coo-coo. In addition, it has other notes, resembling those of the 

 last species. 



SUBORDER ALCYONES. KINGFISHERS. 



XXXI. FAMILY ALCEDINID^E. KINGFISHERS. 



Characters same as family. CEKYLE. 91 



91. GENUS CERYLE BOIE. 

 Subgenus STREPTOCBRYLE Bonaparte. 



*158. (390). Ceryle alcyon (LINN.). 



Belted Kingfisher. 



Adult Male. Head with crest; above, bluish-gray, with a white 

 collar, wings marked with white. Below, white; band across breast 

 and sides, bluish-gray. Adult Female. Sides tinged with ru- 



