BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 200 



io6. Ceryle alcyon (Linn.). 

 Belted Kingfisher. Kingfisher. 



Permanent resident ; rare and perhaps not always present in winter, not uncommon in 

 spring and summer, most numerous in autumn. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



March 26, 1 898, one seen, Arlington, W. Faxon. 



April 10 — November I. (Winter.) 

 November 15, 1890, one seen, Arlington, W. Faxon. 



NESTING DATES. 



May 15 — 25. 



The Kingfisher continues to breed sparingly in the region covered by the 

 present Memoir. It has never been numerously represented here in summer 

 since I can remember, and I am inclined to believe that nests are found almost as 

 often now as they were twenty or thirty years ago, even in the city of Cambridge. 

 As lately as 1899 there was one in a bank on the shores of Fresh Pond. When 

 the alewives had access to this pond their fry swarmed in its waters every 

 autumn, attracting great numbers of Kingfishers during September and the early 

 part of October. At this season the birds are still common enough (although 

 much less so than formerly) about the shores of most of our ponds, as well as 

 along Charles River. They also visit small isolated pools and the deeper reaches 

 of our larger brooks. I remember seeing a Kingfisher many years ago at an 

 artificial pond (long since filled) in the grounds of the Chauncey Smith estate 

 (then owned by Dr. Joseph E. Worcester) on Brattle Street, Cambridge, and on 

 May 24, 1900, another flew low over our lawn, rattling loudly. A few birds con- 

 tinue to frequent the ornamental ponds in Mount Auburn. 



We used to think that all our Kingfishers went further south to pass the 

 winter, for during the earlier years of my field experience none were ever noted 

 between the close of November and the latter part of March. Since 1890, how- 

 ever, one or two birds have been observed almost every season in December and 

 January, usually along the tidal reaches of Charles River or at the outlets of the 

 Mystic Ponds, where there are nearly always stretches of open water. These, 

 however, can furnish but indifferent hunting grounds for a hungry Kingfisher 

 when the temperature falls to zero, for at such times most of the smaller fishes 

 remain well below the surface. 



