By Stream and Pond. 321 



and a quarter long and nine tenths of an inch broad. Florida is the metropo- 

 lis of the Boat-tailed Grackles, but they extend north on the coast as far as 

 Virginia and to Louisiana and Texas. 



The Fish Crow is very similar in general appearance to the Common 

 Crow. It is, however, much smaller, only about sixteen inches long. The 

 Fish Crow. birds are black all over, and glossed above with deep blue 

 corvus ossifragus wiis. gr purpHsh shecu, which is not so obvious below, but is 

 generally much brighter than on this region in the Common Crow. The 

 entire nesting and breeding economy is very much alike in the two birds. 

 The eggs of the bird under consideration are smaller, nearly an inch and a 

 half long by a little more than an inch broad, and are otherwise not appreci- 

 ably different. 



The call notes of the two birds are widely different, that of the Fish Crow 

 recalling the rasping note of the young of the Common Crow, heard so fre- 

 quently in the early summer. 



The Fish Crow is not so widely distributed as its relative. It is not 

 generally found far inland but is distributed over the Atlantic and Gulf Coast 

 region, from Southern Connecticut to Louisiana. It is not uncommon in the 

 lower Hudson Valley, and has been recorded from Massachusetts. In Florida 

 in the winter I have frequently seen large flocks of these birds feeding on 

 the ripe seeds of the cabbage palmetto, and I obtained a single bird in the 

 vicinity of Asheville, North Carolina. 



The Kingfisher is the water watchman. In his uniform of blue and 



white, ever ready to spring his rattle of alarm, he posts himself on some 



dry limb or other point of vantage from which he may 



Belted Kingfisher. ^^^ watch for his finny prey or the advent of some 



enemy. These birds are found throughout North 



America from the Arctic Ocean to Panama. They breed from the Southern 



States northward and winter from the Middle States south. 



The Kingfisher nests in holes in gravel or sand banks, generally exca- 

 vated by the birds. Such burrows vary from six to eight feet in depth, and 

 the white eggs, four to eight in number, are laid on a rude structure of 

 grasses and trash at the end of the excavation. I have found on a single 

 occasion a pair breeding in a deep crevice in loosened rocks of an old 



