THE EINGEU KINGFISHEE. 41 



Mexico. It has only recently been added to our fauna, and it is doubtful if it 

 breeds within our borders. An adult female was shot l)y Mr. George B. Benners, 

 of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 2, 1888, about a mile below Laredo, 

 Texas, on the United States side of the Rio Grande. He says: "It was sitting 

 on some old roots which had been washed up into a heap by the current of the 

 river, and was shot immediately, so I did not see it fly or hear its call." This 

 specimen is now in possession of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel- 

 phia, Pennsylvania.-^ 



Although moderately common, and distributed over ' extensive areas, very 

 little has as yet been published about the life history of this giant among 

 Kingfishers. Dr. Herman Burmeister, in his "Thiere BrasiUens," 1856 (Vol. I, 

 p. 415), says: "This is the largest of the American Kingfishers, and it is pretty 

 generally distribitted over the warmer portions of South America, along the 

 shores of wooded streams, where it sits on limbs overhanging water, watching 

 for fish, which constitute its principal food. It nests in perpendicular banks, 

 occasionally quite a distance from water, in burrows from 5 to 6 feet deep, and 

 lays two white eggs." 



Mr. Charles W. Richmond, in his interesting paper on "Birds from Nicaragua 

 and Costa Rica," makes the following remarks about the species: "Very com- 

 mon. This species has a note similar to that of C. alcyon, but somewhat stronger. 

 One morning a pair of these birds went through a very curious performance. 

 Attention was first called to them by their loud, rattling cry, which was kept up 

 almost constantly as they circled and gyrated about over the water, occasionally 

 dropping, not diving, into the water, and sinking below the surface for a moment. 

 This maneuvering lasted some minutes, after which^both birds flew upstream, 

 uttering their ordinary note. 



"Two or three individuals were in the habit of passing the night at some 

 point on the creek back of the 'L. P.' plantation, and came over just about 

 dusk every evening. I noticed them for several months, and was struck with 

 the regularity of their coming and the course taken by each on its way to the 

 roost. The birds could be heard a considerable distance away just before dusk, 

 uttering their loud, single 'chuck' at every few beats of the wings. They 

 appeared to come from their feeding grounds, often passing over the plantation 

 opposite, probably to cut oif a bend in the river. One of the birds invariably 

 passed close to the corner of the laborers' quarters, though at a considerable 

 height, and the other near a trumpet tree some distance away. The third bird 

 was only a casual visitor. At times the birds came together, but usually there 

 was an interval of several minutes. Their routes met at a turn of the creek a 

 few rods back of the house, where they usually sotxnded their rattling notes and 

 dropped down close to the water, which they followed to the roost. This was 

 in a huge spreading tree, covered with parasitic plants and numerous vines, 

 which hung in loops and festoons from the limbs. On one occasion I shot at 

 one of the birds as it came clucking overhead, and caused it to drop several 



' ' The Auk, Vol. XI, 1894, p. 177. 



