6 THE O. & O. SEMI-ANNUAL. 
THE BELTED KINGFISHER. 
Ceryle Alcyon. 
This bird has a length of about 12—13 inches; extent, 1g—20 
inches ; bill 2 inches, and tarsus very short. Feet and legs very 
slight and slender, in proportion to size and weight of bird. The 
inner toe is much shorter than the 
two others. The middle and outer 
toes are joined for more than half 
their length. 
The color of the upper parts is a 
slaty-blue; tips of wings and _ tail 
black, crossed by dotted lines of 
white, giving an impression of bars. 
Under colors white and chestnut ; 
the chestnut forming a band across 
front of throat and along sides of 
breast to the legs- A small white 
” Cerijle aleyon, spot is formed in front of each eye. 
There is, also, a chin and ring encir- 
BELTED KINGFISHER, é : 
cling throat of white. 
The crest is thin and long and nearly always carried erect. 
Each feather of it has a black stripe along the center ; the remain- 
ing portion of blue similar to upper parts. This gives the crest 
a slightly darker hue. 
They are usually among the first dozen of migrants that arrive 
in the spring. The freezing of the smaller streams and the for- 
mation of ice along the margins of the larger streams seem to- 
be the cause for this departure for the south. In the fall of the 
year 1889 they left some weeks before any ice was formed. 
It inhabits the margins of streams, sitting for hours over the 
water, usually perched on a dead limb or stub, watching for small 
fish. When a fish is seen, it darts headlong from its perch, and 
the fish, if caught, is brought up in its beak. 
In mid-summer they may be occasionally seen poised in mid-air 
above the water, hunting for fish. 
