﻿Belize River, after leaving Peten, I saw a number of this Kingfisher every day. Their 

 favorite station, when watching for fish or resting, is an old snag or branch of a tree hall 

 submerged in the water. From this, as our canoe approached, they would rise, and take a 

 night of two or three hundred yards down the river, and then alight again. As we passed 

 down three or four birds would thus fly before us, till they, not liking to be driven farther 

 from their accustomed haunts, would suddenly turn and dart past us at full speed. The 

 steep clay banks of the river were pierced in many places with the holes in which their 

 nests are placed." 



" The range of Ceryte torquata in Central America is extensive. The collection brought 

 by Mr. Le Strange from Mexico contains three examples. Southward of Guatemala 

 specimens have been collected by Carmiol in Costa Rica, and I have seen a specimen from 

 the Mosquito territory. McLeannan has forwarded specimens from Panama and Arce* 

 others from Chepo, on the River Bayano." 



The following interesting note has been kindly forwarded by Mr. Edward Barth n: — 



" The Ceryle torquata is the commonest of all Kingfishers on the Amazons and its 

 tributaries, and is seen in colonies about the steep clay banks. I found this bird wherever 

 I went, at the mouth of the Amazons, and also at the highest points reached by me on the 

 Maranon, Ucayali, and Huallaga Rivers. It breeds in company with C. amazonia. The 

 nest, however, is placed very much deeper in the bank than in the case of the last-named 

 bird, the hole being from four to six feet in depth, with a chamber at the end sufficiently 

 large for the young when nearly full grown. The eggs are pure white, four in number." 



In the collection formed by Lieut. Michler during the survey of the Isthmus of Darien, 

 Mr. Cassin informs us, were " numerous specimens, exclusively adults in fine plumage," 

 and Mr. C. J. Wood, who accompanied the expedition, remarks that this Kingfisher was 

 "very abundant in the immense swamps on the Atrato and Truando, alio-hting on the low 

 trees and uttering a loud shrill note. It catches small fishes, apparently very easily on 

 account of their abundance, and returns to the tree." 



Prince Maximilian gives the following details respecting the present species : — 



" We found these birds most abundant on the shores of the beautiful and interesting 

 Parahyba, where we found a considerable number within a small area, and procured them 

 without difficulty ; on other rivers, however, we did not see the bird, and therefore we 

 often killed none for a long time. They are large handsome birds, and have the habits 

 of our German Kingfisher. They sit on boughs over the water and move the tail, also 

 sometimes raising the feathers of the crown. Their food consists of fishes, the remains of 

 which are found in their stomachs ; they dive quickly after these. I have never found 

 lizards in their stomachs, but it is possible so powerful and greedy a bird catches these at 

 times. I have only found the nest once. It was over 1,000 paces from the shore of the 

 Rio da Aldea Belha, in a high clay side of a mountain, whither we saw the birds fly high 

 and swiftly with fish in their bills. As I saw them creep in the ground, the place was 

 climbed to, and I found a deep circular hole in the clay soil in which we put reeds, and 

 soon felt the young birds biting at them and we could draw them out to some distance, but 

 still not quite to the entrance. The Brazilians tell me that this species lays two white eggs. 

 They generally nest like our European Kingfisher, and other allied species in a smooth round 

 hole five or six feet deep, in the bank directly over the water. The young are very vora- 

 cious, and therefore immediately fastened on to our rods with greedy cries." 



The figures in the plate are from specimens in my own collection, the female from 

 Cayenne, the male from Bahia. It will be observed that the under tail-coverts being white 

 indicate a moderately old bird, the tinge of rufous being the last remains of the young 

 plumage. The description and measurements are also from specimens in my collection, 

 that of the old female being the Cayenne specimen figured in the plate, while that of the 

 adult male is taken from a fine skin from Bahia. 



