(S 
i riM UKR ()I’,si-:r\ati().\s ox mixxrsota birds: 
the riglit kind to compensate for the injury inflicted upon the 
trees. 1 he bird is about Hj/j inches long. The adult male has 
crown and throat red, breast black, and belly a shade of -yellow. 
The female has no red on throat and the red c(jlor of the crown 
is sometimes replaced by black. The downy woodpecker, which 
is one of our most useful birds, is under 7 inches in length and 
iias a scarlet band on the back of the head in the male — not on 
the crown. On account of its small size and diflference of colora- 
tion, it need not be confused with the s])ecies under discussion. 
THE BELTED KINGFISHER. 
The al)ove A'irile picture gi\ es an excellent idea of the appear- 
ance of this vivacious, noisy, and, it must be confessed, at times in- 
jurious bird. Naturally a lover of good-bordered streams and ponds, 
its noisy rattle is a flt accompaniment to the sound of running water 
and it is here that it takes freciuent toll of flsh which might other- 
wise have lived to All the angler’s creel. I'ish in ponds and 
streams, thereh^re, suflfer as a result of its rapacious appetite, but 
