36 LIFE HISTOEIBS OP NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



he does not know upon what the parents fed their young. In fact, even in 

 places where they can readily live on fish, they do not appear to confine them- 

 selves to such an exclusive diet. While stationed at Fort Klamath, Oregon, I 

 placed a small steel trap on top of a post standing some 10 yards from the 

 banks of Fort Creek, a clear mountain stream abounding in fish, for the purpose 

 of catching a Screech Owl I often heard calling in the vicinity and was anxious 

 to obtain, but was not able to see to shoot on account of the dense fir trees it 

 frequented. I finally concluded to try trapping it. Twice I baited the trap 

 with mice, and once with a small bird, and on the next morning I found a Kingfisher 

 caught by the neck; it had evidently plunged down on the bait to carry it off. 

 The post in question had, as far as I know, never been used as a perch or lookout 

 by the Kingfishers, as it was too far from the creek. Judging from these occur- 

 rences, I believe that not a few mice, and possibly small birds also, are caught 

 by them during their nocturnal rambles, and they are certainly fully as active 

 throughout the night as in the daytime. 



In favorite spots where fish are plenty, and where there is no suitable place 

 for a perch, they sometimes remain poised over such localities for a minute or 

 more, hovering in the air some 6 feet or more over the water, as does the Sparrow 

 Hawk when searching for grasshoppers and mice in a meadow. When a fish is 

 caught it is at once carried in the bill to the nearest perch or rock, against 

 which it is beaten until dead, and is then swallowed head first. The indigestible 

 parts, such as bones and scales, are afterwards ejected in oblong pellets, which 

 can be seen lying around in their burrows or about their favorite perches. 



By far the larger number of fish caught by the Kingfisher consist of species 

 not considered worth much as food fishes, and they rarely average over 3 inches 

 in length. Occasionally, however, a larger one is mastered by one of these birds. 

 Mr. Manly Hardy, of Brewer, Maine, writes me: " I shot a Kingfisher last spring 

 which had swallowed a pickerel considerably longer than the bird from the end 

 of the bill to the tip of the tail, the tail of the fish protruding from the throat, 

 while the head was partly doubled back, causing a large protuberance near the 

 vent." 



In stormy weather, when the water becomes rough or muddy, these birds 

 sufi"er greatly and sometimes almost perish from want of food, and then occa- 

 sionally resort to eating vegetable matter to sustain life. Dr. Elliott Coues has 

 published the following observations on this subject, communicated by Mrs. Mary 

 Treat, Green Cove Spring, Florida: "A Kingfisher whose feeding ground is 

 just in front of my windows fishes from a private wharf, where he is seldom 

 disturbed, and has become so tame that he pursues his avocations without con- 

 cern, though I may be standing within a few feet of him. * * * Wlien the 

 water is so rough that it is diflicult for him to procure fish, instead of seeking 

 some sequestered pool he remains at his usual post, occasionally making an 

 ineff"ectual eff"ort to secure his customary prey, until, nearly starved, he resorts 

 to a sour-gum tree (Nyssa aquatica L.) in the vicinity, and greedily devours the 

 berries. Returning to his post, he soon ejects a pellet of the large seeds and 



