. [Articles about birds from National geographic magazine]. Birds. 802 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. AN AVIAN POACHEE GETS A CHANCE WHEN KINGFISH Photograph by A. A. Allen HAS A SUCKER IN ITS BILL The belted kingfisher is notoriously jealous of its "fishing rights" along a favorite river. Some call this frequenter of lonely streams an enemy of young trout, but its diet is largely restricted to chubs, minnows, and other shallow-water fish of no value to anglers. An expert high diver, this bird may plunge 50 feet to snap up its prey from the water. The red-brown band across the low
. [Articles about birds from National geographic magazine]. Birds. 802 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. AN AVIAN POACHEE GETS A CHANCE WHEN KINGFISH Photograph by A. A. Allen HAS A SUCKER IN ITS BILL The belted kingfisher is notoriously jealous of its "fishing rights" along a favorite river. Some call this frequenter of lonely streams an enemy of young trout, but its diet is largely restricted to chubs, minnows, and other shallow-water fish of no value to anglers. An expert high diver, this bird may plunge 50 feet to snap up its prey from the water. The red-brown band across the lower breast identifies this one as a female (Color Plate IV). macaws and parakeets the tail is long and graduated. Green is a common color in the plumage, and is often variegated with yellow, orange, and red. Although there are a few excep- tions, bright coloration is the rule. The most brilliant members of all the par- rot group are found among the lories of Aus- tralia and adjacent islands. Red, orange, yellow, blue, and green are mingled in their plumage in bizarre and striking pat- terns. In most parrots the tongue is soft and flexible at the tip and is used to hold food while it is cut up by the bill. The tongue in lories has a brushlike fringe at the end that is supposed to assist in extracting nec- tar from blossoms. SOME PARROTS THREE FEET LONG, OTHERS THREE INCHES Members of the parrot family range in size from giants to midgets. The great all-blue hyacinthine macaw of Brazil is nearly three feet in length, with a long, pointed tail. The black cockatoo of north- ern Australia and adjacent islands is per- haps even a larger and heavier bird in body, as it is 32 inches long despite its short, square tail. What a contrast there is between these huge-billed giants and the tiny pygmy par- rots of New Guinea and near-by islands, the smallest of which is barely three inches long! Probably the best-known members of the family are the Amazon parrots of the New World. Small to med
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