BELTED KINGSFISHER. Q29 
merely that they may soothe his ear, but for a gratification somewhat 
more substantial. Amidst the roar of the cataract, or over the foam of 
a torrent, ‘he sits perched upon an overhanging bough, glancing his 
piercing eye in every direction below for his scaly prey, which, with 
a sudden, circular plunge, he sweeps from their native element, and 
swallows. in an instant.. His voice, which is not unlike the twirling’ 
of a watchman’s rattle, is naturally loud, harsh, and sudden; but is: 
softened by the sound of the brawling streams and cascades among 
which he generally rambles. He courses along the-windings of the 
brook or river, at a small height above the surface, sometimes sus- 
pending himself by the rapid action of his wings, like certain species of 
Hawks, ready to pounce on the fry below; now and then settling on 
an old, dead, overhanging limb to reconnoitre.* Mill-dams are particu- 
larly visited by this feathered fisher; and the sound of his pipe is as 
well known to the miller as the rattling of his own hopper. Rapid 
streams, with high, perpendicular banks, particularly if they be of a 
hard clayey or sandy nature, are also favorite places of resort for this 
bird ; not only because in such places the small fish are more exposed 
to view, but because those steep and dry banks are the chosen situa- 
tions for his nest. Into these he digs with bill and claws horizontally, 
sometimes to the extent of four or five feet, at the distance of a foot or 
two from the surface. The few materials he takes in are not always 
placed at the extremity of the hole, that he and his mate may have 
room to-turn with convenience. The eggs are five, pure white, and 
the first brood usually comes out about the beginning of June, and 
sometimes sooner, according to the part of the country where they 
reside. On the shores of Kentucky River, near the town of Frankfort, 
I found the female sitting early in April. They are very tenacious of 
their haunts, breeding for several successive years in the same hole, 
and do not readily forsake it, even though it be visited. An intelligent 
young gentleman informed me, that having found where a Kingsfisher 
built, he took away its eggs from time to time, leaving always one 
behind, until he had taken no less than eighteen from the same nest. 
At some of these visits, the female, being within, retired to the ex- 
tremity of the hole, while he withdrew the egg, and next day, when 
he returned, he found she had laid again:as usual. 
The fabulous stories related by the ancients of the nest, manner of 
species, would be at once distinguished by the peculiarities of form, which are per- 
haps not sufficient to indicate a genus without more of like characters ; the geo- 
graphical distribution, South America, New Holland, Africa, and India. 3, Da- 
celo; the form, D. gigantea; geographical distribution, New Holland. And, 
4. Ceyx ; containing the Three-toed Kingsfisher, C. tridactyla ; geographical distri- 
bution, India. — Ep. 
* Mr. Audubon mentions, that this species sometimes also visits the salt water 
creeks, diving after fish; when crossing from one lake to’another, which it fre- 
quently, does, it passes over forests in a direct line, not unfrequently by a course of 
iwenty or thirty miles, towards the interior of the country. Its motions at this time 
consist of a series of slops, about five or six in number, followed by a direct glide, 
without any apparent undulation. : 
They dig the holes for their nest with great despatch. As an instance of their 
yorkie with celerity, the same gentleman mentions, that he hung a small net in 
front of one of their holes to entrap the bird upon the nest; but, ere morning, it 
had scratched its way out: On the following evening, he stopped up the hole for 
upwards of a foot er a stick, but the same thing again took Bate.-Ep. 
