The Western Belted Kingfisher 
which attends upon any exposure of the sahuaro tissue, as upon the 
excavation of a nest. 
For the Gilded Flicker is at once janitor and high priest of the 
Sahuaro. It is he who prepares, with Cousin Gila ( Centurus uropygialis ), 
most of the lodgings, and he does this with rare and conscious foresight. 
Scorning for himself a second-hand dwelling, even his own, the industrious 
flicker delves out the nesting hollow a year ahead. And whenever this 
attractive hollow happens to please a braver or less considerate bird, a 
Purple Martin or an Elf Owl, the poor flicker has to delve again. And 
because this has happened many, many times, the patient bird just keeps 
on digging, so that there will surely be enough for all. 
Perhaps it is for this reason, also, that the Gilded Flicker rears a 
much smaller family than does either of his close kinsmen, Colaptes 
cafer or C. auratus. Four eggs is the almost invariable rule for Colaptes 
chrysoides. Nesting is undertaken in early April, and second broods 
are reared occasionally, although much less frequently than is the case 
with the Gila Woodpecker. Flickers’ eggs are crystal white, and so 
transparent for the first day or so that one can determine from the outside 
the precise stage of incubation. After that, the shells become opaque 
or partially discolored. 
Gilded Flickers are neither as confiding nor as demonstrative as 
are the related species. Without cover, they must flee at the approach 
of danger; and there is no safe “middle distance’’ from which to upbraid 
the intruder. If there are young, however, the mother bird will return 
to the home tree and say, whoo' hoo hoo, whoo' hoo hoo , in a very anxious 
voice. You can have mine, birdie; 1 don’t want ’em. 
No. 206 
Western Belted Kingfisher 
A. O. U. No. 390a. Megaceryle alcyon caurina (Grinnell). 
Synonym. —Commonly called plain “Kingfisher.” 
Description. —Adult male: Upperparts, sides of head, and a broad pectoral 
band slaty blue (green-blue slate), the feathers chiefly with blackish shafts; feathers 
of crown prolonged into loose occipital crest, and these with broader black central 
stripes; the wing-coverts and inner primaries sharply and finely, the secondaries 
broadly, tipped with white; edge of wing and exposed primaries black; the primaries 
white-spotted centrally on outer webs, and nearly pure white on inner webs; concealed 
portions of tail-feathers black, sharply barred or spotted-and-barred with white; a 
touch of white in front of eye, and lower eyelid white; sides mingled slaty and white; 
IO49 
