It is fortunate that the easy-going mother does not need to prepare the bountiful repasts her family demand. She and her husband select a home-site near fields where weeds abound and where grain is raised. The family gorge themselves upon seeds until they almost burst. Mr. Charles Nash says that “these birds are often so full of seeds that, if a bird is shot, the crop bursts open when it strikes the ground.”[83]
They are of enormous economic value. Their food is almost entirely vegetable, and consists largely of the seeds of weeds that a farmer must pay to have destroyed or work hard to eradicate. Doves frequent fields of wheat, corn, buckwheat, rye, oats, and barley, but the grain they destroy is only a third of their food, and consists largely of waste kernels, according to the reports of the Department of Agriculture.[84] They like many varieties of infinitesimal seeds that are eschewed by other birds; as many as 9200 seeds have been found in the stomach of one dove.
These birds have an unerring instinct for fresh water. With a peculiar, whistling sound, they fly at nightfall to a spring or pool for a cool drink before retiring. Hunters are said to have watched them and thus found springs for their needs.[85]
Doves eat quantities of gravel to aid in the digestion of their epicurean feasts. They are fond of dust-baths. They also indulge in queer, senseless-looking acrobatic performances, which appear like attempts at gymnastics.
THE BELTED KINGFISHER
Kingfisher Family—Alcedinidæ
Length: About 13 inches—a rather large, stocky bird.
General Appearance: A large bluish-gray and white bird, with a very large crested head, a long bill, and a short tail.
Male: Bluish-gray above, becoming darker on the wings; a ragged-looking crest on an unusually large head; a white spot in front of each large dark eye; small flecks on the wings; tail bluish-gray, flecked and barred with white; throat white, a band of white extending nearly around the neck; a broad band of bluish-gray extending across the breast; under parts white, except the sides, which are bluish-gray; feet relatively small, but with long, strong nails.
Female: Similar to the male, except for a band of reddish-brown across the breast, extending to the sides, and forming a fourth belt; a white belt at the throat, then gray, white, and reddish-brown belts. Unlike most birds, the female kingfisher is more highly colored than the male.
Note: A long harsh rattle, similar to the sound made by two bones or smooth sticks in the hands of a boy, or to the noise of a policeman’s rattle.
Habitat:
“By a wooded stream or a clear cool pond,
Or the shores of a shining lake.”
Range: North America, and northern South America. Breeds from Alaska and northern Canada to the southern border of the United States; winters from British Columbia, central United States to the West Indies, Colombia, and Guiana, irregularly to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Ontario.
KINGFISHER
This self-appointed guardian of our streams and lakes is clad in a suit of gendarme blue. He wears a sharp two-edged sword in his cap, and carries a rattle in his throat.
He is a perfect example of “Watchful Waiting,” as he sits motionless on a bough overhanging a stream, with his fierce eyes fixed intently upon the waters beneath him. When an unwary fish swims by, this blue-coat plunges after it and spears it with deadly accuracy. If small, the fish is swallowed whole; if large, it is beaten to death against a tree, and devoured with difficulty. When fish are not obtainable, the kingfisher will eat frogs and crustaceans, and sometimes grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles. Fish, however, are his favorite food.[86]