136 ■WOODPECKERS. 



Belted Kingfisher, familiar hy voice and appearance to 



every one who lives near a river or pond. He comes 



Belted Kingfisher, i" ^P^'il, ^^'^'en the ice no longer cov- 



Ceri/ie a/ei/aii. ers his hunting ground, and remains 



Piute xxiii. until November; or, if the season be 



exceptionally mild, he sometiines stays for the winter 



fishing. His nest is built in a hole in a bank, where, 



early in May, his mate lays from five to eight white 



eggs. 



The Kingfisher is generally branded a fish thief and 

 accounted a fair mark ftir every man with a gun, and, 

 were it not for his discretion in judging distances and 

 knowing just when to fly, he would long ago have disap- 

 peared from the haunts of man. We might now be a 

 few fish richer, but would they repay us for the loss of 

 this genius of wooded shores ? 



WOODPECKEBS AND WRYNECKS. (ORDER PICI.) 



Woodpeckers. (Fajiily PiciD.a;.) 



The three hundred and fifty known species of Wood- 

 peckers are represented in all the wooded parts of the 

 world except the Australian region and Madagascar. 

 Nearly one half this number are found in the New 

 World, and of these twenty -five occur in North America. 



Few birds seem better adapted to their mode of life 

 than Woodpeckers, the structure of their bill, tongue, 

 tail, and feet being admiral)ly suited to their needs. 



The notes of Woodpeckers can not he termed musical, 

 and their chief contribution to the springtime chorus is a 

 rolling tattoo which resemldes the k-r-r-r-riitg call of the 

 tree frogs. The feathered drummer selects a resonant 

 limb and pounds out his song with a series of strokes de- 



