BELTED KINGFISHER. 



Ceryle alcyon. 



Char. Above, slaty blue; head with long crest; beneath, white. 

 Male with blue band across breast. Female and young with breast-band 

 and sides of belly pale chestnut. Length 12 to 13 inches. 



Nest. An excavation in a sandbank, — usually by the side of a stream ; 

 lined with grass and feathers. 



Eggs. 6-8; white and glossy ; 1.35 X 1.05. 



This wild and grotesque-looking feathered angler is a well- 

 known inhabitant of the borders of fresh waters from the re- 

 mote fur countries in the 67th parallel to the tropics. Its 

 delight is to dwell amidst the most sequestered scenes of 

 uncultivated nature, by the borders of running rivulets, near 

 the roar of the waterfall, or amidst the mountain streamlets 

 which abound with the small fish and insects that constitute 

 its accustomed fare. Mill-dams and the shelving and friable 

 banks of watercourses, suited for the sylvan retreat of its 

 brood, have also peculiar and necessary attractions for our re- 

 tiring Kingfisher. By the broken, bushy, or rocky banks of 



