BELTED KINGSFISHER 

 ALCEDO ALCYON. 



[Plate XXIII.— Fig. l.—J^^m«fe.] 



Bartram,/?. 289.--Turton, j&. 278.— Peale's Museum, No. 2145. 



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 last 

 circumstance, and its characteristic appearance, make it as uni- 

 versally known here, as its elegant little brother, the common 

 Kingsfisher of Europe, is in Britain. Like the love-lorn swains of 

 whom poets tell us, he delights in murmuring streams and falling 

 waters; not however merely that they may sooth his ear, but for 

 a gratification somewhat more substantial. Amidst the roar of the 

 cataract, or over the foam of a torrent, he sits perched upon an 

 overhanging bough, glancing his piercing eye in every direction 

 below for his scaly prey, which with a sudden ciixular plunge he 

 sweeps from their native element, and swallows in an instant. His 

 voice, which is not unlike the twirling of a watchman's rattle, is 

 naturally loud, harsh, and sudden ; but is softened by the sound of 

 the brawling streams and cascades among which he generally ram- 

 bles. He courses along the windings of the brook or river, at a 

 small height above the surface, sometimes suspending himself by 

 the rapid action of his wings like certain species of Hawks, ready 

 to pounce on the fry below; now and then settling on an old dead 

 overhanging limb to reconnoitre. Mill-dams are particularly vi- 

 sited by this feathered fisher; and the sound of his pipe is as well 

 known to the miller as the rattling of his own hopper. Rapid 

 streams with high perpendicular banks, particularly if they be of 



