26 
USEFUL I’.IRDS 
fallen leaves, it picks up many injurious insects, and it must be 
admitted, some useful forms as well, the "round beetles, for 
exam])le. 
THE BELTED KINGFISHER. 
I'he above virile picture s’ives 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 wood-bordered streams and 
ponds, its noisy rattle is a fit accompaniment to the sound of run- 
nin" water and it is here that it takes frequent toll of fish which 
mi"ht otherwise have lived to fill the angler’s creel. I^fish in ponds 
and streams, therefore, suft'er as a result of its rapacious appetite, 
but its depredations become of nuirked importance when it habitu- 
ally takes its food from ponds or streams of those who raise trout 
on a commercial scale. Frequently, the shot gun is used by the fish- 
breeder in self-defense; or taking achantage of the bird’s habit of 
freciuenting- a perch over the water, whence it can see its prey be- 
low the surface, a steel trap is placed on the top of an upright 
pole ])lanted in the pond and the marauder ca])tured therein, its 
white eggs are placed at the end of a long- burrow in some bank 
near the water. 
