is much larger, and his nest is not nicely lined
with feathers--the young often have no softer bed than a few
fish-bones."

[Illustration: Belted Kingfisher.]

The Belted Kingfisher

Length about thirteen inches.

A long, bristling crest; bill longer than head, stout, straight, and
sharp.

Leaden-blue above, with many white bands and spots on the short, square
tail and long, pointed wings.

Below white, with a blue belt across the breast, and the female with a
brown belt also.

A Citizen of North America.

Belonging to no useful guild, but a rather startling, amusing neighbor,
who always minds Ins own business and is an industrious fisherman.

"What was the other bird, who cried, 'kuk kuk!' on the outside of the
woods? There, it is calling again! I'm sure that it is a Woodpecker!"

"Wrong again--it is a Cuckoo; the Yellow-billed one, I think, for the
voice is louder and harsher than that of his Black-billed brother."

[Illustration: Yellow-Billed Cuckoo.]

"What! a little blue and white bird like the one that bobs out of
mother's carved clock at home? Oh, do let us try to find it! But this
bird didn't say 'cuckoo'; it only cackled something like a Hen when she
is tired of sitting."

"The clock Cuckoo is an imitation of the merry, heedless English bird,
who lays her eggs in the wrong nests, as our Cowbird does. The
Yellow-billed Cuckoo is quite different, being long, slender, and
graceful, and a very patient parent--even though the nest she builds is
rather a poor thing, made of a few twigs piled so loosely in a bush that
the pale-green eggs sometimes drop out.

"Let us go over to the brush hedge where the bird seemed to be. Hush!
there he sits upon the limb of a maple. No--look a little higher up. He
is perfectly still, and acts as if he was half asleep. See what a
powerful bill he has! With that he tears away the ugly webs of
tent-caterpillars from the fruit trees, and sometimes eats more than
forty caterpillars without stopping--he is so fond of them. Look at him
through the glass, and see if the following description fits him."

The Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Length about twelve inches.

Upper parts olive-gray or Quaker color all over, smooth and shiny; wings
tinged with bright cinnamon, and most of the tail-feathers black, with
large white spots at the ends.

Under parts pure white. Under half of bill yellow.

A Summer Citizen of temperate North America west to the plains. Travels
south f