So general is the dispersion o f the Kingfisher in all parts of England, that there are few situations, .J¡¡§1 I|H wheVe it may not be found; even the waters in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Paik are
seldom without a solitary example sitting motionless in some nook or co rn er: yet how few o f the busy emzens
■ H H B B j B n or indeed on any other river, some knowledge of the habits o f the
bird most have been previously aeqnired. I f the water he elear, it may be seen over the mam stre am ; but
if turbid and heavy, and its favonrite food not visible, the bird instinctively resorts to a ne.ghbonr.ng d.tch
. C k l t e r there he patiently sits on .... overhanging hush, and drops upon any aquatic insect,
stickleback, or other small fish. There are times, particularly in autumn, when a partial migration takes
place and the young at least leave the river altogether for the salt marshes near the se a; here every ditch
crossed by a rail forms a perch, whence it keeps a sharp look-out for crustaceous or other mpiatic o r d u r e
in the choice of which it is not over-nice or particular. Voracity, m fact, .s one of the M H | | | not
only of onr bird,hut of thewhole race. The Australian Kingfisher will attack a small r a t ; —
bullhead or a gudgeon the length of its own body, by which means .t .s not unfrequently choked. No
greater proof can he given of the immense number of fish destroyed by these birds than the g g g g H g
hones c L up in the shape of lengthened pellets from the stomach o f a smgle pair, a large dry was
formed in a few days. That such a quantity of bones should be cast up I so short a period may seem
stran g e; hot facts are stubborn things, and I will now relate an incident o f th.s k.nd wh.ch came under my
°T»n°trer'l 8th”of April 1859, during one of my fishing-cxcursions on the Thames, I saw a hole in a p rec -
pitous bank, which I felt assured was the nesting-place of a Kingfisher; and1 on passing a *P “re ‘»P '“f
fly.rod to the extremity, a distance of nearly three feet, I brought out some freshly cast bones offish, con-
vfncing me that 1 was right in my surmise. The day following I again visited the spot with a spade; and
after removing nearly two feet square of the turf, dug down to the dmturbing the passage
which led to if. Here I found four eggs, placed on the usual layer of fish-bones. These I removed with
care, and then replaced the earth, beating it down as hard as the bank .tself, and restored he turly sod. A
fortnight after, the bird was seen to leave the hole again, and my susp.c.ou was awakened that she had taken
to her old breeding-quarters a second time. I again visited the place on the twenty-first day from the date
o f my former exploration, and, upon passing the top of my fly-rod up the hole, found not only that .t was
o f the former length, bnt that the female was within. I then took a large mass o f cotton-wool from my
collecting-box, and stuffed it to the extremity, in order to preserve the eggs from damage during my
again laying it open from above. On removing the sod and digging down as before, I came to the cottou-
y wool, and beneath it a well-formed nest of fish-bones, the site o f a small saucer, the walls o f which were fill y
half an inch thick, together with eight beautiful, translucent, pale p.nky-wh.te eggs, and the old female
herself This nest I removed with the greatest c a re ; and it is now deposited in the proper resting-place for
so interesting an object, the British Museum. This mass o f bones, then weighing 700 grams, had been cast
up and deposited by the bird and its mate in the short space o f twenty-one days. Ornithologists are divided
in opinion as whether the fish-bones are to be considered in the light of a nest. Some are disposed to
believe them to be the eastings and feces of the young brood of the year, and th at the same hole being
frequented for a succession of years, a great mass is at length formed; while others suppose th at the).are
deposited by the parents as a platform for the eggs, constituting, in fact, a nest ; and I think, from what I
have adduced, we may fairly conclude that this is the c a se ; in fact nothing could be better adapted to defend
the eggs from the damp earth.
The g reat Dacelones of Australia deposit their eggs in cavernous hollows in the boles of the Eucalypti; tile
Halcyones in the spouts of the branches of the same tre e s ; both on the bare wood. Onr Kingfisher, and
probably all the true — on the other hand, like the Sand-Martin, drills a circular, upward-slan mg
hole in an upright bank, to the depth of two or three feet, a t the end of which it excavates an oven-like
chamber, large enough for its seven or eight young to sit upright on the nest o f bones, the slanting
direction o f the entrance serving as a drain for the excrement; and hence the fcetid odour from this cloaca
often leads to the detection of the breeding-plaee. It is also detectable by means of another sense; for it the
ear be placed to the opening, the shrill voices of the young, resembling the noise produced by a spinning-
wheel or the pea in a child's rattle, may be heard. When the young quit the hole, they Bit about on the
neighbouring branches, and greet the old birds as they arrive and supply by turns the ravenous brood.
These young fliers generally resemble the adults in colour; they are therefore gaily dressed from the
beginning. The adult of both sexes are much alike; the male, however, is smaller thau h.s mate in size,
but brighter in colour.
Independently of the British Wands, the Kingfisher inhabits every part of Europe, except the extreme
n o rth ; it is also distributed over the African border of the Mediterranean; in India it is replaced by a nearly
allied species, the Alcedo Bengalensh.
The Plate represents the two sexes, of the natural size, on the Carex riparia.