64 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



toes are jointed. The American species are fish eaters and are 

 seldom found far from the water. 



The bill of the adult male belted kingfisher is two inches 

 long; heavy, sharp pointed and of a dark-brown color; white 

 speck in front of the eye ; iris of the eye, crimson-brown ; head 

 large and heavy with prominent crest and grayish blue to 

 the nape; wings and tail grayish blue, minutely speckled 

 and marked with broken bands of white ; throat white, this 

 color passing on to the sides of the neck and nearly meeting 

 on the back of it ; band across the breast and sides, bluish- 

 gray; lower breast and belly, white. The legs are very short 

 and weak; feet small with three toes in front and one in 

 the rear; toes syndacytle, that is, the inner and middle ones 

 are united to the second joint. The adult female is similar 

 to the male, except that the sides and the bands on the belly 

 are rufous. Their bodies, like those of the water fowl, are 

 covered with down which keeps them warm, and their plum- 

 age is oily, thus admirably adapting them to the life they 

 live and to their pursuit of fishing. 



The range of the belted kingfisher extends from Panama 

 and the West Indias to the Arctic Ocean, and they breed 

 throughout their range northward from Florida and Texas. 

 In the northern part of their range they are summer resi- 

 dents, but many of them winter in some of the New England 

 States, as well as in Oregon and Washington on the Pacific 

 coast. Their remaining through the winter depends much 

 upon whether they can find open water in which to fish. 



Very early after they come north they prepare to make 

 their nest, which, as a rule, is made at the end of a tunnel 

 bored into the perpendicular bank of the stream, pond or 

 lake from which they get their food. The excavation is made 

 by both the male and female working alternately. In mak- 

 ing the nest, the birds use their beaks and feet. The excava- 

 tion is circular in form and averages about four inches in 

 diameter and varies in length from four to fifteen feet, accord- 

 ing to the nature of the soil. Generally it ascends slightly 

 and runs perfectly straight for the entire distance. Occasion- 

 ally, however, it diverges at different angles, at various dis- 

 tances from the entrance to the hole. The nesting chamber 



