This species varies considerably in size with locality, as do so many others. Western specimens are appreciably larger, especially those from the northwest coast. According to Nuttall and Audubon, it is the female that has the transverse band of chestnut across the belly. In this they may be correct; but several specimens in the Smithsonian collection marked female (perhaps erroneously) show no indication of the chestnut.[101]
Two closely allied but much larger species belong to Middle and South America. They differ in having the whole body beneath of a reddish color.
Habits. The common Belted Kingfisher of North America is a widely distributed species at all times, and in the summer is found in every portion of North America, to the Arctic Ocean on the north, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is more or less resident throughout the year, and in mild and open winters a few have been known to linger throughout New England, and even in higher latitudes. In 1857 Captain Blakiston found it remaining on the lower part of the Saskatchewan River until the 7th of October; and afterwards, in 1859, at Pembina, on the 1st of May, he observed
them to be present, although the river was not yet open. Those that have migrated to the south make their reappearance in spring throughout the continent as soon as, and not unfrequently before, the ice has disappeared from the rivers and ponds.
It occurs in extreme northern latitudes. Mr. MacFarlane received skins from the Eskimos obtained on the Arctic coast, and Mr. Dall found them breeding at Fort Yukon, where it was quite common on all the small streams flowing into that river. It was also found by Dr. Richardson frequenting all the large streams of the fur countries, as far at least as the 67th parallel. In California a larger race than our Atlantic species is found abundantly along the coast, and about nearly every stream or lake in which the water is not turbid and muddy.
Mr. A. Newton reports this bird as a winter visitant at St. Croix, leaving the island late in April. It frequents mangrove swamps and the mouths of small streams, sometimes fishing half a mile out at sea. The stomach of one contained shells of crabs. The occurrence of two specimens of this species in Ireland is recorded by Mr. Thompson.
The Kingfisher is an eminently unsocial species. It is never found other than in solitary pairs, and these are very rarely seen together. They feed almost entirely upon fish, which they capture by plunging into the water, and which they always swallow whole on emerging from their bath. Undigested portions of their food, such as scales, bones, etc., they have the power of occasionally ejecting from their stomachs. They may usually be noticed by the side of streams, mill-ponds, and lakes, stationed on some convenient position that enables them to overlook a deep place suitable for their purpose, and they rarely make a plunge without accomplishing their object.
The cry of the Kingfisher, uttered when he is disturbed, or when moving from place to place, and occasionally just as he is about to make a plunge, is loud and harsh, and resembles the noise made by a watchman’s rattle. This noise he makes repeatedly at all hours, and most especially at night, during the breeding-season, whenever he returns to the nest with food for his mate or young.
They nest in deep holes excavated by themselves in the sides of streams, ponds, or cliffs, not always in the immediate vicinity of water. These excavations are often near their accustomed fishing-grounds, in some neighboring bank, usually not many feet from the ground, always in dry gravel, and sufficiently high to be in no danger of inundation. They make their burrow with great industry and rapidity, relieving one another from time to time, and working incessantly until the result is satisfactorily accomplished. When digging through a soft fine sand-bank their progress is surprising, sometimes making a deep excavation in a single night. The pages of “The American Naturalist” contain several animated controversies as to the depth, the shape, and the equipments of these passages.
The result of the evidence thus given seems to be that the holes the Kingfishers make are not less than four nor more than fifteen feet in length; that some are perfectly straight, while some, just before their termination, turn to the right, and others to the left; and that all have, at or near the terminus, an enlarged space in which the eggs are deposited. Here the eggs are usually laid on the bare sand, there being very rarely, if ever, any attempt to construct a nest. The use of hay, dry grass, and feathers, spoken of by the older writers, does not appear to be confirmed by more recent testimony. Yet it is quite possible that in certain situations the use of dry materials may be resorted to to protect the eggs from a too damp soil.