The Belted Kingfisher 65 



at the farther end of the excavation is dome-shaped and 

 usually from eight to ten inches in diameter. The time re- 

 quired in making the excavation varies from a few days to 

 two or three weeks, the time depending largely upon the 

 character of the soil in which the excavation is made. Five 

 to eight glossy white translucent eggs are laid, sometimes 

 on the bare soil, but often on the fish bones, which being in- 

 digestible are thrown up in pellets by the birds ; and, in 

 any case, before incubation is completed these rejectmenta 

 accumulate so as to form a cup-shaped structure that in- 

 creases in bulk after the young are hatched and which with 

 the decaying fish, brought for their food, soon becomes a 

 fetid mass. Incubation lasts about sixteen days, the male 

 taking no part in it except that he is very attentive to the 

 female and supplies her with food. Frequently he makes a 

 shallow second excavation close to the first so that he may 

 be near his mate. The young are hatched without feathers, 

 are very helpless, and remain in the nest for several weeks, 

 and are fed by both parents who are very devoted to them. 

 Mr. Ernest Seton Thompson has aptly entitled his picture 

 of the belted kingfisher as the "Lone Fisherman." Nothing 

 is truer than that if a person would have good luck in fishing, 

 he must not take a crowd with him ; a small, quiet company 

 is more desirable. Indeed, he who goes alone to the secluded 

 places of a stream with his rod, reel and line is the true 

 Izaak Walton, and the one who, as a rule, will have the best 

 luck. And this is why the belted kingfisher is a "lone 

 fisherman." The principal part of his food consists of fish, 

 and in obtaining it a pair of them will secure a portion of 

 a water course, lake or sea shore as their fishing grounds. 

 The Fall Creek front at Buzzard's Roost is one of these fish- 

 eries. The birds nest just below it in what is known as the 

 Rolling Bank. In season a pair of kingfishers may be 

 seen plying their avocation of fishing in the stream above and 

 below the nest. When fishing the bird alights upon the 

 naked limb of a tree, as is shown in the illustration and with 

 down-turned head watches for the fish in the water below. 

 Espying one, he darts down into the water, catches it with 

 his bill, and he usually has good luck. Having caught his 



