KINGFISHERS 
199 
quieter phases of nature, with still woodland pools and smooth lakes, 
where they give a vivifying touch of active wild life. In a remote 
narrow canyon, how they thrill you as they dash by overhead — a 
flash of blue and white! 
When you are idling beside a pellucid stream like the Merced, 
where each overhanging leafy branch is mirrored, each tiny fish seen 
as it lies in the still water, sometimes a sudden plunge and splash 
startles you from a diver who before has been watching from his 
branch, as silent as the brook. He circles back to his perch, where 
his fish glints in the sun as he shakes it, and throwing up his long 
bill, swallows, cleans his beak on the branch, and with a satisfied 
rattle turns to look about, blue crest raised, white collar shining, 
and short tail tipped up in an animated way. Four plunges I 
have seen him make in almost as many seconds, stopping to preen 
himself only after the fourth wetting. Once when he dived in shal¬ 
low water he did not take the trouble to fly up but stood on the sand 
with tail at an angle till he had finished his fish. When watching 
a pool he will sometimes stand in air hovering over the water a 
moment, then rise and hover at a higher level. 
Though generally found along woodland streams, the kingfishers 
are seen sometimes perched on the rigging of vessels in the har¬ 
bors. 
[390.1.] Ceryle torquata (Linn.). Great Rufous-bellied King¬ 
fisher. 
Adult male. — Upper parts bluish gray, more or less streaked witli black ; 
tail spotted with white ; throat and nuchal collar white ; breast and belly 
rufous; under tail coverts and anal region white. Adult female: similar, 
but breast grayish blue, usually bordered behind by white, and lower tail 
coverts and anal region rufous. Length : 15.50-17.00, wing about 7.50. 
Distribution. — Tropical America (except West Indies). Casual on the 
lower Rio Grande in Texas. 
391 Ceryle americana septentrionalis Sharpe. Texas 
Kingfisher. 
Small; head not crested. Adult male : upper parts green, spotted on 
wings with white ; chest crossed by broad band of chestnut, bordered be¬ 
low by green spots ; throat, collar, and belly 
white. Adult female : similar to male but with- 
out chestnut, and with two bands of green spots 
across breast. Young male: like adult, but lp- 1 * 
breast more or less tinged with rusty. Length : 6.75-8.50, wing 3.40-3.50, 
tail 2.70-2.75, exposed culmen 1.65-1.85. 
Distribution. — From southern Texas and Sinaloa, Mexico, south to 
Panama. 
Nest. — A burrow in a bank. Eggs : 5 to 6, white. 
Food. — Like that of Ceryle alcyon. 
The habits of the little Texas kingfisher are said to be the same as 
