752 Home Nature-Study Course. 



Lesson VIIL 

 the habits of the kingfisher. 



Purpose. — To make the pupils familiar with the way the kingfisher 

 lives. 



Observations for Pupils. — (i). Where is the kingfisher found? 



(2). Does it have a particular perch, and if so, where? 



(3). Why is this perch used? 



(4). What is its food and how is it obtained? How killed? 



(5). Does the bird often hang poised over the water? If so, why? 



(6). What is the use of its long beak? 



(7). Where does it build its nest? 



(8). Is there a lining in the nest, and if so, of what does it consist? 



(9). What is the note of the kingfisher? 



(10). Do both parents feed the young? 



(11). Do you ever see more than one kingfisher on the same fishing 

 ground ? 



(12). Does it swallow the fish head or tail first? Why? 



Facts for the Teacher. — The kingfisher is found along the banks of streams or 

 the shores of ponds and lakes ; each individual has one or perhaps more favorite 

 perches; this perch is usually some branch or object projecting over the water, and 

 the bird sits upon it with its keen eyes alert for any fish that may come into the 

 waters below; if it sees a fish it will dart from the perch, hold itself steadily above 

 its prey waiting for it to come to the surface, then will dart down like a flash and 

 seize the fish in its long beak and fly back with it to its perch or nest. The bird's 

 legs are very weak because it uses them for nothing but perching. It is probably 

 because of this use that the third and fourth toes have become more or less grown 

 together. The kingfisher beats the fish to death and then swallows it head first, so 

 the fins will not stick in his throat; after a time he throws up a ball of the scales 

 and bones. 



The kingfisher builds its nest in a burrow made horizontally in a bank; this 

 often extends for several feet before the nest is reached. Many fish bones are 

 found in the nest cleaned and white and seem to form a lining. Wonderful tales 

 are told of the way the English species uses fish bones to support the earth above 

 its nest and of their regular arrangement in the nest itself. But most naturalists 

 seem inclined to think that the lining of fish bones in the nest of our own kingfisher 

 is incidental. The note of the kingfisher is a loud rattle, not especially pleasant 

 close at hand, but not unmusical at a little distance; it is a sound that conjures 

 visions of shade dappled streams and dancing blue waters of tree-fringed lakes and 

 ponds. There seems to lie a division of fishing grounds among the kingfishers, 

 one bird never trespassing upon its neighbor's preserves ; and unless it be the parent 

 pair working near each other for the nestlings we never see two kingfishers in the 

 same immediate locality. Look up the fable of The Halcyon. 



References. — " Bird Neighbors," Blanchan ; " The Story of the Birds,'* 

 Baskett ; " The Bird," Eckstorm ; " Hand Book of Birds of Northeastern 

 America," Chapman ; " Second Book of Birds," Miller. 



