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BELTED KINGFISHER. 
extremity of tlie liole ; that he and his mate may have room to turn 
with convenience. The eggs are five, pure white, and the first brood 
usually comes out about the beginning of June, and sometimes sooner, 
according to that part of the country where they reside. On the sliores 
of Kentucky river, near the town of Frankfort, I found the female sit- 
ting early in April. They are very tenacious of their haunts, breeding 
for several successive years in the same hole, and do not readily forsake 
it, even though it be visited. An intelligent young gentleman informed 
me, that having found where a Kingfisher built, he took away its eggs, 
from time to time, leaving always one behind, until he had taken no less 
than eighteen from the same nest. At some of these visits, the female 
being within, retired to the extremity of the hole while he withdrew the 
egg, and next day, when he returned, he found she had laid again as 
usual. 
The fabulous stories related by the ancients of the nest, manner of 
hatching, &c., of the Kingfisher, are too trifling to be repeated here. 
Over the winds and the waves the humble Kingfishers of our days, at 
least the species now before us, have no control. Its nest is neither con- 
structed of glue nor fish-bones ; but of loose grass and a few feathers. 
It is not thrown on the surface of the water to float about, with its pro- 
prietor, at random ; but snugly secured from the winds and the Aveather 
in the recesses of the earth ; neither is its head or its feathers believed, 
even by the most illiterate of our clowns and seamen, to be a charm for 
love, a protection against witchcraft, or a security for fair weather. It 
is neither venerated like those of the Society Isles, nor dreaded like 
those of some other countries ; but is considered merely as a bird that 
feeds on fish ; is generally fat ; relished by some as good eating ; and is 
now and then seen exposed for sale in our markets. 
Though the Kingfisher generally remains with us, in Pennsylvania, 
until the commencement of cold weather, it is seldom seen here in 
winter ; but returns to us early in April. In North and South Carolina, 
I observed numbers of these birds in the months of February and 
March. I also frequently noticed them on the shores of the Ohio, in 
February, as high up as the mouth of the Muskingum. 
I suspect this bird to be a native of the Bahama Islands, as well as 
of our continent. In passing between these isles and the Florida shore, 
in the month of July, a Kingfisher flew several times round our ship, 
and afterwards shot off to the south. 
The length of this species is twelve inches and a half, extent twenty ; 
back and Avhole upper parts a light bluish slate color ; round the neck 
is a collar of pure white, which reaches before to the chin ; head large, 
crested, the feathers long and narrow, black in the centre, and generally 
erect ; the shafts of all the feathers, except the white plumage, are 
black ; belly and vent white ; sides under the wings variegated with 
