Kingfisher

a family of birds represented in temperate North America by the belted kingfisher. One hundred eighty species are known in the Malay Archipelago, some of them being forest birds living on insects and snails. Our North American bird is, however, typical of the family. It lives a solitary life, sitting on an overhanging dead limb on the wooded shore of a stream or pond, apparently studying its own portrait in the water, but in reality watching for dinner. It is thirteen inches in length. Its upperparts are bluish gray, wings tipped with white and underparts chiefly white. The epithet "belted" is derived from a band of blue across the breast. The head bears a prominent crest. The nest is placed at the end of a six-foot burrow dug with foot and bill in a sandy bank. Five to eight white eggs are hidden in the burrow, which also serves as a nightly shelter for the family early in the season. As soon as the young are old enough the family breaks up, each individual fishing its own portion of shore. The kingfisher's chief food is minnows, which it catches crosswise in its bill by plunging into the water either from the wing or from an overhanging perch. If disturbed it flies with a loud rattling scream to a perch further along the shore. If followed this operation may be repeated until the further limit of its district is reached, when it flies back by a wide detour to the other end of its range.

William J. Long, in his Wilderness Ways, records some interesting observations of this quaint old fisherman and his cranky methods. According to Mr. Long it warns game of the approach of a hunter and spoils many a coveted shot at moose, bear, or deer. The poet Lowell, who was a close student of birds, says, "Kingfishers have sometimes puzzled me . . . perched at high noon in a pine, springing their watchman's rattle when they flitted away from my curiosity, and seeming to shove their top-heavy heads along as a man does a wheelborrow."

The jackass kingfisher, or laughing kingfisher, is a large brown species, seventeen inches long. It takes its name from a harsh braying jackass-like cry. It is at home in the dry plains of Australia, and nests in the sand. It does not frequent water, and is not a fisherman. It lives on insects, lizards, small snakes, etc. See Halcyon