566 AVES—BELTED KINGFISHER, 
tion somewhat more substantial. Amidst the roar of a cataract, or over the 
foam of a torrent, he sits perched upon an overhanging bough, glancing his 
piercing eye in every direction below for his scaly prey, wnich, with a 
sudden circular plunge, he sweeps from their native elemeat and swallows 
in an instant. His voice, which is not unlike the twirling of a watchman’s 
rattle, is naturally loud, harsh, and sudden, but is softened by the sound of 
the brawling streams, and cascades, among which he generally rambles. 
He courses along the windings of the brook, or river, at a small height above 
the surface. Sometimes suspending himself by the rapid actior. o* hus 
wings, ready to pounce on the prey below; now and then settling on an old 
dead overhanging limb to reconnoitre. Mill-dams are particularly visited 
by this feathered fisher ; and the sound of his pipe is as well known to the 
willer, as the rattling of his own hopper. 
Rapid streams, with high perpendicular banks, particularly if they be of a 
hard clayey or sandy nature, are also favorite places of resort for this bird; 
not only because in such places the fish are more exposed to view, but 
because those steep and high banks are the chosen situations for his nest. 
Into these he digs with his bill horizontally, sometimes four or five feet. 
The nest is built of few materials. They are very tenacious of their haunts, 
breeding for several successive years in the same hole, and do not readily 
forsake it, even though it be visited. Many fabulous stories have been 
related by the ancients, of the nest and manner of hatching of the kingfisher 
