%0 



NBBTa AND EOOS OF 



Blue-crowned Motmot varies from bluish to greenish or, as Mr. Ridgway describes It, 

 "verditer-blue, varying to verdigris-green, duller centrally"; length of bird about 

 14.20 to 15, middle tail feathers 8.80 to 9.15 inches. 



390. BELTED KINGFISHEB. Ceryle alcyon (Linn.) Geog. Dist.— Entire 

 North America, South Panama and West Indies. 



This is the familiar bird whose loud, coarse, rattling notes are heard along our 

 streams. It may be seen perched upon the lower branches of a tree overhanging the 

 water, or on the top of a dead stump; these places furnish a favorite outlook, from 



which it plunges beneath the water to se- 

 cure its prey, which is chiefly fish. It is a 

 curious fact that Mr. W. E. D. Scott fre- 

 quently met with this bird in the desert 

 region of Southern Arizona, far from 

 water, feeding on the large insects and 

 lizards. The nest of the Kingfisher is an 

 excavation in the face of a perpendicular 

 bank of a stream, or in the banks of gravel 

 pits. The entrance ip generally about two 

 or three feet below the surface; the tun- 

 nel is usually straight, but sometimes an 

 angle from three to six or eight feet, and is 

 dug by the bird. The Kingfisher ejects 

 from its mouth the bones, scales and other 

 indigestible portions of its food, like a bird 

 of prey. Thus are we able to account for 

 the bones and other refuse of food found 

 in the nesting cavities, in the midst of 

 which the eggs are deposited. The eggs are of a clear shining white, nearly spherical 

 in shape, usually six in number; when the full complement is laid it generally num- , 

 bers seven or eight. Six eggs measure 1.34x1.07, 1.35x1.08, 1.37x1.04, 1.47xL03, 1.37x 

 1.05, 1.40x1.08. 



* * A Typical Kingfisher. 



390. 1. RINGED KINGFISHER. Ceryle torquata (Linn.) Geog. Dist.— Mexi- 

 co and southward to Southern South America; casual on the Lower Rio Grande, 

 Texas. 



This is the largest and handsomest 'Kingfisher fojind on the American con- 

 tinent, inhabiting suitable localities throughout the greater portion of South 

 America, the whole of Central America, and most of Mexico. It has been added to 

 our fauna from the fact that Mr. Geo. B. Benners shot an adult female about a mile 

 below Laredo, Texas, on the United States side of the Rio Grande. The birds nest 

 in holes in perpendicular b^nks, sometimes a long distance from water and lay 

 white eggs which are, in all probability, similar to those of our familiar Belted 

 Kingfisher. 



391. TEXAN KINGFISHER. Ceryle americana septentrionalis Sharpe 

 (Tschudi.) Geog. Dist. — Southern Texas to Arizona, south to Ecuador and Western 



' Peru. 



This beautiful little bird, known as Texan Green Kingfisher, Is quite common in 

 suitable places along the streams of Southern Texas — wherever the water is not too 

 muddy for it to clearly see its prey. Like the Belted Kingfisher, this species nests 

 in holes of banks, depositing the eggs on the bare floor of the cavity, or upon fish 



