Bird Study 



lOl 



THE BELTED KINGFISHER 

 Teacher's Story 



HIS patrol of our streams and lake shores, in his cadet 

 uniform, is indeed a military figure as well as a militant 

 personality. As he sits upon his chosen branch over- 

 hanging some stream or lake shore, his crest abristle, 

 his keen eye fixed on the water below, his whole bearing 

 alert, one must acknowledge that this fellow puts 

 "ginger" into his environment, and that the spirit 

 which animates him is very far from the "dolce far 

 niente" which permeates the ordinary fisherman. However, he does not 

 fish for fun but for business; his keen eye catches the gleam of a moving 

 fin and he darts from his perch, holds himself for a moment on steady 

 wings above the surface of the water, to be sure of his quarry, and then 

 there is a dash and a splash and he returns to his perch with the wriggling 

 fish in his strong beak; he at once proceeds to beat its life out against a 

 branch and then to swallow it sensibly, head first, so that the fins will not 

 prick his throat nor the scales rasp it. He swallows the entire fish, trust- 

 ing to his internal organs to select the nourishing part; and later he gulps 

 up a ball of the indigestible scales and bones. 



The kingfisher is very different in form from an ordinary bird; he is 

 larger than a robin, and his head and fore parts are much larger in propor- 

 tion; this is the more noticeable because of the long 

 feathers of the head which he lifts into a crest, and 

 because of the shortness of the tail. The beak is very 

 long and strong in order to seize the fish and hold it 

 fast; but the legs are short and weak; the third and 

 fourth toes are grown together for a part of their 

 length; perhaps this is of use to the bird in pushing- 

 earth from the burrow, when excavating. The king- 

 fisher has no need for running and hopping, like the 

 robin and, therefore, does not need the robin's strong 

 legs and feet . His colors are beautiful and harmonious ; 

 the upper parts are grayish blue, the throat and collar 

 white, as is also the breast, which has a bluish gray 

 band across the upper part, this giving the name of 

 the Belted Kingfisher to the bird. The feathers of the wings are tipped with 

 white and the tail feathers narrowly barred with white. The under side 

 of the body is white in the males, while in the females it is somewhat chest- 

 nut in color. There is a striking white spot just in front of the eye. 



The kingfisher parents build their nest in a burrow which they tunnel 

 horizontally in a bank; sometimes there is a vestibule of several feet 

 before the nest is reached, and at other times it is built very close to the 

 opening. Both parents are industrious in catching fish for their nestlings, 

 but the burden of this duty falls heaviest upon the male. Many fish 

 bones are found in the nest, and they seem so clean and white that they 

 have been regarded as nest lining. Wonderful tales are told of the way 

 the English kingfishers use fish bones to support the earth above their 

 nests, and tributes have been paid to their architectural skill. But it is 

 generally conceded that the lining of fish bones in nests of our kingfisher 

 is incidental, since the food of the young is largely fish, although frogs, 



Kingfisher' s foot. 



This shows the weak 

 toes; the thini and 

 fourth are joined 

 together, which un- 

 doubtedly assists 

 the bird in push- 

 ing out soil when 

 e.xcavating. 



