DIKECTOKY TO BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 185 



A. FORKED-TAILED HUMMINGBIRDS. 



Trochilidae. 



Medium sized hummingbirds with rather short bills; 

 throat with scale-like, iridescent feathers. 



a. Green-backed Hummingbirds. Trochilus. 



Tail, forked in adult male and dark, rounded in female 

 and young and tipped with white ; back, green. 



1. RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, T. COLUBRIS. 

 3.50; throat of male, metallic ruby, other wife white beneath. 

 Female without ruby throat, plate 16. Breeds throughout 

 eastern N. A. from Fla. to Labrador; migrates north in May, 

 south in Sep. ; winters fom Fla. to Mexico. 



Alcedinae. 



Birds of varying sizes, but with long bills having wide 

 gapes, long wings, short tails, and small feet. Food, often 

 fishes, sometimes other small animals. Occur throughout 

 temperate and tropical regions of .the world. Colors, often 

 bright. Eggs, white. Young naked when hatched and help- 

 less. 



A. CRESTED KINGFISHERS. Cerylidae. 



Head, crested, legs very short ; Fig. 236. 



two outer toes joined at base. 



a. Belted Kingfishers. 

 Ceryle. 



Bluish above with the lower 

 parts conspicuously banded. 

 Sexes, unlike. 



1. BELTED KINGFISHER, 

 C. ALCYON . 22.00 ; male with 

 single band of bluish like the 

 back, fig. 236; female with an ad- 

 ditional band of brownish-red be- 

 low this. Breeds throughout IS". -A. A., A, a, 1. 1-10. 

 A. from the southern border of the U. S. north to the Arctic 



