348 BELTED K1NGSF1SHER. 



BELTED KINGSFISHER. (Alcedo alcyon.) 



PLATE XXIIL— Fig. 1, Female. 



Bartram, p. 289.— Turton, p. 278.— Peak's Museum, No. 2145. 



ALCEDO ALOYOW.—Liwmvs.* 



Alcedo alcyon, Bonap. Synop. p. 49. — The Belted Kingsfisker, Aud. pi. 77, 

 Orn. Biog. i. p. 394. 



This is a general inhabitant of the banks and shores of all our 

 fresh-water rivers, from Hudson's Bay to Mexico, and is the 

 only species of its tribe found within the United States. This 



* The description of Wilson, and that of Audnbon, which has been 

 added in a note from the " Ornithological Biography," give a very cor- 

 rect detail of the general manners of the true kingsfishers, or those re- 

 sembling that of this country ; there is throughout the family, however, 

 a very considerable difference in form, and, as a matter of course, a cor- 

 responding difference in habit ; this has occasioned a division of them 

 into various groups, by almost all ornithologists ; that to which our pre- 

 sent species belongs, and of which it is the largest, contains all those of 

 smaller size with four toes and sharp angular and lengthened bills ; they 

 feed entirely on fish and aquatic insects, and live on the banks of rivers, 

 lakes, and creeks, and occasionally on the sea-shore. They are distri- 

 buted over the world, but the warmer parts of India, Africa, and South 

 America possess the greatest share, North America and Europe possess- 

 ing only one each. The colours of the plumage, with a few exceptions, 

 particularly the upper parts, are very bright and shining, the webs of 

 the feathers unconnected and loose ; the under parts generally white, 

 with shades of reddish brown and orange. The division nearest to this, 

 containing but a few species of very small size, but similar in form and 

 colouring, has been separated on account of having three toes, and, I 

 believe, is exclusively Indian. Another and a well-marked group is the 

 halcyon of Mr Swainson ; it differs materially in the form and manners 

 of living, and ranges everywhere, except in North America and Europe. 

 The birds are all above the middle size, with a stouter and more robust 

 form ; the colour sometimes very gaudy, in others of rich and pleasing 

 shades of brown. The bill, a chief organ of distinction, is large, much 

 dilated at the base, and, in one or two instances, very strong. They 

 inhabit moist woods, and shady streams or creeks, where they watch on 

 a motionless perch for the larger insects, as the common European species 

 does for fish, and they dart upon them when passing, or when seen on 



