136 WOODPECKERS. 



Belted Kingfisher, familiar by voice and appearance to 



every one who lives near a river or pond. He comes 



Belted Kingfisher, ^ n April, when the ice no longer cov- 



Ceryie alcyon. ers his hunting ground, and remains 



Plate xxin. un til November ; or, if the season be 



exceptionally mild, he sometimes stays for the winter 



fishing. His nest is built in a hole in a bank, where, 



early in May, his mate lays from five to eight white 



eggs. 



The Kingfisher is generally branded a fish thief and 

 accounted a fair mark for every man with a gun, and, 

 were it not for his discretion in judging distances and 

 knowing just when to fly, he would long ago have disap- 

 peared from the haunts of man. We might now be a 

 few fish richer, but would they repay us for the loss of 

 this genius of wooded shores ? 



WOODPECKERS AND WRYNECKS. (ORDER PICI.) 



WOODPECKERS. (FAMILY PICID^E.) 



THE three hundred and fifty known species of Wood- 

 peckers are represented in all the wooded parts of the 

 world except the Australian region and Madagascar. 

 Nearly one half this number are found in the New 

 World, and of these twenty -five occur in North America. 



Few birds seem better adapted to their mode of life 

 than Woodpeckers, the structure of their bill, tongue, 

 tail, and feet being admirably suited to their needs. 



The notes of Woodpeckers can not be termed musical, 

 and their chief contribution to the springtime chorus is a 

 rolling tattoo which resembles the k-r-r-r-ring call of the 

 tree frogs. The feathered drummer selects a resonant 

 limb and pounds out his song with a series of strokes de- 



