156 



Hints to Auduboji Workers. 



about for a kingfisher. He is the most 

 marked of the trillers, having a loud, rapid 

 call that, as Mr. Burroughs so aptly ex- 

 presses it, suggests an alarm. Thoreau 

 spells it out as '' cr-r-ack-cr-r-ack." He is 

 generally on the wing as he makes it, and 

 if you look up in time, you will see a 

 large, ungainly, na^7■ blue bird, with a 

 white collar, a heavy, crested head, and such 

 a short tail that you wonder what makes 

 him fly so queerly — his wings seem to be 

 too far back. But if he lights on a dead 

 stub by the water, so that you can see his 

 compact, oily plumage, so well adapted to 

 cold plunges, you will think him a very 

 handsome fellow in spite of the fact that he 

 is topheavy. He sits like the flycatchers, 

 but without any of their nervousness, and 

 watches the unsuspecting fish that are com- 

 ing toward the surface. Before they know 

 what has happened they are in his great 

 bill, wriggling about helplessly, as he flies 

 through the air back to the stub where he 

 will devour them at his leisure. 



In Thoreau's "Summer," under the date 

 of June 12, is a careful description of this 

 fishing habit. He says: " Scared a kingfisher 

 on a bough over Walden. As he flew off, 

 he hovered two or three times thirty or forty 

 feet above the pond, and at last dove and 

 apparently caught a fish, with which he flew 

 off l(nv over the water to a tree." 



He generally builds his nest in holes 

 along the banks of rivers and streams, and 

 the eggs are a beautiful ivory white. As 

 the kingfisher spends most of his time on 

 the wing, his feet are small and weak. Mr. 

 Burroughs says of him: 



"The halcyon or kingfisher is a good 

 guide when you go to the woods. He will 

 not insure smooth water or fair weather, but 

 he knows every stream and lake like a book, 

 and will take you to the wildest and most 

 unfrequented places. Follow his rattle and 

 you shall sec the course of every trout and 

 salmon .stream on the continent. * * * 

 His time is the time of the trout, too, 



namely, from April to September. He 

 makes his subterranean nest in the bank of 

 some favorite stream, and then goes on long 

 excursions up and down and over woods and 

 mountains to all the waters within reach, 

 always fishing alone, the true angler that 

 he is, his fellow keeping far ahead or be- 

 hind, or taking the other branch. He loves 

 the sound of a waterfall, and will sit a long 

 time on a dry limb overhanging the pool 

 below it, and, forgetting his occupation, 

 brood over his own memories and fancies." 



ovenbird; golden-crowned thrush. 



Another form of the trill is given by the 

 ovenbird. It has not the peculiar "alarm" 

 quality of the kingfisher's cry, but is very 

 loud and rapid. Mr. Burroughs has aptly 

 described it by the word teach-cr. It seems 

 to beat upon the air as it grows louder and 

 louder, increasing in intensity, volume and 

 rapidity until the end. Mr. Bicknell speaks 

 of it very happily, and at the same time 

 describes the rarer song of the bird. He 

 says: " The ordinary song of the ovenbird, 

 but for its inseparable association with the 

 quiet recesses of summer woods, would 

 certainly seem to us monotonous and com- 

 monplace; and the bird's persistent reitera- 

 tion of this plain song might well lead us to 

 believe that it had no higher vocal capa- 

 bility. But it is now well known that, on 

 occasion, as if sudden emotion carried it 

 beyond the restrictions that ordinarily beset 

 its expression, it bursts forth with a wild 

 outpouring of intricate and melodious song. 

 This song is produced on the wing, oftenest 

 when the spell of evening is coming over 

 the woods. Sometimes it may be heard as 

 an outburst of vesper melody carried above 

 the foliage of the shadowy forest and de- 

 scending and dying away with the waning 

 twilight." 



Mr. Bicknell speaks only of the two dis- 

 tinct songs, but I have heard the two com- 

 bined. The outbreak of high, rapid, con- 

 fused notes being interlarded with the 



