252 Habits of the Kingfisher. 



kingfisher. On it, this pretty bird will tarry for a while in 

 passing up and down, and then plunge into the stream, and 

 bring out a fish. My elevated station on the oak gives me 

 a fine opportunity of admiring its back, as it darts along be- 

 neath me. When the sunbeam is upon it, no words can do 

 justice to the beauty of the glowing azure which attracts 

 the eye. 



Modern ornithologists have thought fit to remove the 

 kingfisher from the land birds, and assign it a place amongst 

 the water fowl. To me the change appears a bad one ; and 

 I could wish to see it brought back again to the original situ- 

 ation in which our ancestors had placed it; for there seems 

 to be nothing in its external formation which can warrant this 

 arbitrary transposition. The plumage of the kingfisher is 

 precisely that of the land bird, and, of course, some parts of 

 the skin are bare of feathers; while the whole body is deprived 

 of that thick coat of down so remarkable in those birds which 

 are classed under the denomination of water-fowl. Its feet 

 are not webbed ; its breast-bone is formed like that of land 

 birds ; and its legs are ill calculated to enable it to walk into 

 the water. Thus we see that it can neither swim with the 

 duck, nor dive with the merganser, nor wade with the heron. 

 Its act of immersion in the water is quite momentary, and 

 bears no similarity to the immersion of those water fowl 

 which can pursue their prey under the surface, and persevere 

 for a certain length of time, till they lay hold of it. Still the 

 mode of taking its food is similar to that of the gulls, which 

 first see the fish, and then plunge into the deep to obtain it: 

 but this bird differs from the gull in every other habit. 



You observe the kingfisher sitting on a rock, or upon the 

 branch of a tree, or hovering over the water ; and the mo- 

 ment a fish is seen in the stream below, it drops down upon 

 it like a falling stone. If it miss the mark, which is rarely 

 the case, it comes up again immediately, without further exer- 

 tion in the water, and then flies off, or occasionally regains 

 its former station in order to make another plunge. As this 

 process of immersion is of very short duration, the bird is 

 enabled to escape with impunity from the deep, in which, or 

 on which, were it to remain for a very little time, death would 

 inevitably be its fate. 



These undeniable circumstances have induced me to wish 

 for the restoration of the kingfisher to its former situation 

 amongst the land birds ; for I feel reluctant to admit that 

 the single act of procuring its food from the water should be 

 thought a sufficient reason for removing it from its old asso- 

 ciates, and placing it amongst strangers, with whom it can 



