THE BELTED KINGFISHER 27 



around the upper breast. Its cry is a metallic rattle, like 

 "Churr-r-r-r-r-r!" and its food is small fish. It nests in a 

 hole dug several feet horizontally into a perpendicular bank 

 of earth, near water, or in a hollow tree. 



Now and then complaints are uttered against our old 

 belted friend, because he catches and eats small fishes, quite 

 as if some one grudged him his daily food. All such complaints 

 are totally unworthy of real men, and I trust that as long as 

 our country endures, we will hear no more of them. When this 

 country becomes too poor, or too mean, to support the few 

 kingfishers that remain in it, it will be time for all Americans to 

 emigrate. 



The feather millinery trade has been very destructive to 

 the kingfishers. At the first feather auction in London fol- 

 lowing the closing of the American market on October 4, 

 1913, 22,810 skins of kingfishers were returned to their owners 

 because they could not be sold. But for our new law, those 

 skins would probably have been consumed in our country as 

 hat ornaments. 



