. Our own birds : a familiar natural history of the birds of the United States . Belted Kingfisher. appearance of the Kingfisher are peculiar. A long,sharp, and powerful bill; a large head, surmountedby a crest that adds fierceness to its look; a thickneck and robust body, but rather small in proportion;wings ample; legs very short, and feet small. Theupper parts of the plumage are bluish lead color,lower parts mostly white; in the male a band of blackcrosses the upper part of the breast; in the femalethe blue tint is not so perceptible, and the bandacross the breast is reddish brown, the bell
. Our own birds : a familiar natural history of the birds of the United States . Belted Kingfisher. appearance of the Kingfisher are peculiar. A long,sharp, and powerful bill; a large head, surmountedby a crest that adds fierceness to its look; a thickneck and robust body, but rather small in proportion;wings ample; legs very short, and feet small. Theupper parts of the plumage are bluish lead color,lower parts mostly white; in the male a band of blackcrosses the upper part of the breast; in the femalethe blue tint is not so perceptible, and the bandacross the breast is reddish brown, the belly beinggirted with a broad belt of the same color. Its favorite places of resort are near inland streams, ^iJ^. Carolina Iarrots or Parrakeets. I (129) THE WOODPECKERS. 131 lakes, and mill-ponds, especially where a clayey orgravelly bank rises to some height above the watersedge; here the male and female assist each other indigging out a hole, running horizontally to the depthof four or five feet, and about one or two feet belowthe surface of the ground. This hole, which is justlarge enough to admit the body of the bird, is widenedtoward the extremity into an oven-shaped apartment,of sufficient size to allow of the birds turning freelyabout; here the nest, which is composed of a fewsticks and feathers, is placed. The female mostlylays six pure white eggs, which she hatches in aboutsixteen days, the male taking his turn with his matein the process of incubation. To this hole the samepair will sometimes resort for many successive will now endeavor briefly to describe some ofthe most prominent and familiar members of the in-teresting, numerous, and widely spread family of theWoodpeckers.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1879
