The Belted Kingfisher 491 



nest might ride uninjured over the water during the seven proverbial ' Halcyon 

 Days.' " 



At first blush it may seem a far call from the typical fish-eating Kingfisher 

 to a great fruit-eating Hornbill, and so it is, but the piscivorous Kingfishers 

 undoubtedly represent the extreme degree of differentiation attained by any mem- 

 bers of the family, while the most ancient types are apparently with equal cer- 

 tainty represented by the great Laughing Kingfishers (Dacelo), which in food, 

 habits, and structure as well, are seen to approach most closely to the typical 

 Hornbills. While no actual connecting links are perhaps known, it appears 

 well authenticated that the Kingfishers and the Hornbills and their immediate 

 allies, the Hoopoes, must have had a common ancestor, though granting that it 

 was at a relatively remote period. 



Typical Kingfishers. The two hundred species of Kingfishers are disposed 

 among twenty genera and are capable of being separated into two well-marked 

 subfamilies. The first of these {Alcedinince} comprises the so-called typical 

 or true Kingfishers, in which there is a long, slender, compressed, and percep- 

 tibly keeled bill, combined with mainly fish-eating habits. Of the five genera 

 comprised in this subfamily we may appropriately begin with Ceryle, which 

 embraces all of the New World forms, and of these the best-known is of course 

 the Belted Kingfisher (C. alcyori), which ranges over the whole of North America 

 and south to Panama and the West Indies. It is too well known to need exten- 

 sive description, yet briefly it may be mentioned that it is a stocky bird about 

 thirteen inches in length, bluish gray above, with conspicuous white spots on 

 tail and wings, and pure white below, interrupted by a broad band of bluish 

 lead-color across the breast, \vhile the white of the throat passes as a narrow 

 band around the hind neck. The female is similar, but has the sides and a band 

 across the belly rufous. This is the common Kingfisher whose rattling call is 

 so frequently heard along our streams, ponds, and lakes, a bird alert, active, and 

 seemingly " glad to be living." In disposition it must be classed as a rather 

 unsociable and quarrelsome bird, and except at the nesting season it is rather 

 rare to find two together. " Every bird," says Major Bendire, " seems to have 

 favorite perches along its range, each perhaps quite a distance away from the 

 next, to which it flies from time to time, generally uttering its well-known shrill 

 rattle in doing so. It is a watchful, rather shy bird, sitting frequently for an 

 hour at a time in the same position, occasionally moving its head backward and 

 forward, watching for its prey as a cat does for a mouse. In such a position 

 the Kingfisher is one of the most charming features of brook and pool. Should 

 an unfortunate fish come within sight at such times, our lone fisherman is at 

 once alert enough, craning its neck and looking into the water, until the proper 

 moment arrives to plunge downward, head first, disappearing out of sight, and 

 usually emerging with a wriggling captive firmly grasped in its bill." 



The nesting burrow is usually excavated by the birds themselves, preferably 

 in a bank along a stream or other body of water, but occasionally along a dry 

 watercourse or railroad cut. The burrow varies in depth from four to fifteen 

 feet, the nesting chamber being some eight or ten inches in diameter and on a 



