8 



FURTIllik ()BSEK\ATI()NS ON MINNKSOTA BIRDS: 



the right kind to compensate for the injury inflicted upon the 

 trees. The bird is about Syi inches long. The adult male has 

 crown and throat red, breast black, and belly a shade of yellow. 

 The female has no red on throat and the red color of the crown 

 is sometimes replaced by black. The downy woodpecker, which 

 is one of our most useful birds, is under 7 inches in length and 

 lias a scarlet band on the back of the head in the male — not on 

 the crown. On account of its small size and dift"erence of colora- 

 tion, it need not be confused with the species under discussion. 



THE BELTED KINGFISHER. 





Tlie above \irile picture gi\es an e.xcellent idea of the appear- 

 ance of this vivacious, noisy, and, it must be confessed, at times in- 

 jurious bird. Naturally a lover of good-bordered streams and ponds, 

 its noisy rattle is a fit accompaniment to the sound of running water 

 and it is here that it takes frequent toll of fish which might other- 

 wise have lived to fill the angler's creel. Fish in ponds and 

 streams, therefore, sufifer as a result of its rapacious appetite, but 



