INTEODUOTION. 69 



any we have yet considered. As, however, the majority of the 

 forms we have referred to have had to do with water, we 

 may begin our next series of forms with one familiar kind 

 which haunts our streams, namely, the Kingfisher (Alcedo 

 ispida). 



This well-known blue and red Bird, with its long, straight, 

 and sharply pointed bill, may stand as the representative of at 

 least one hundred anid sixty-six species which are exceedingly 

 like it. They are scattered very unequally over the whole 



Kg. 71. 





The Dipper ( Cinclvs aqtiaticics). 



world, being most poorly represented in America, and most 

 richly in the Indian Archipelago. 



The Common Kingfisher loves a quiet spot — some silent pool 

 or some secluded trout-stream with deep banks and well 

 shrouded with foHage. It flies very straight, with its short 

 wings rapidly vibrating,, and will dart from the tree on which it 

 has perched, seize a fish and return to beat it dead against a 

 branch, unless it carries it to the hole it has excavated in a 



