223 

 FISHER-BIRDS. 



Belted Kingfisher. 



One June day, a friend, while roaming about on the edge 

 of some woods, suddenly felt the earth giving way beneath 

 his feet and sprang to one side just in time^, as he soon dis- 

 covered, to avoid crushing a family of young kingfishers. 

 Probably the old birds had misjudged the thickness of the 

 earth and made the roof of their house too high, for exam- 

 ination showed that less than half an inch of earth separat- 

 ed the chamber from the outer world. 



My friend was very enthusiastic in his description of how 

 handsome the little fellows were and it took little urging to 

 induce me to accompany him to the scene the next day. I 

 found that he had repaired the break in their home by plac- 

 ing a large flat stone over it, so that the place was much 

 more secure than before it had been broken into. The en- 

 trance to the home, that is the proper one, was located in 

 the side of a gravel pit about six feet from the chamber 

 where the little kingfishers lay. We decided, before open- 

 ing the nest again, to try and get a few views of the adult 

 entering; as there were several roots projecting from the 

 earth within a few inches of the opening, I expected that 

 the birds would alight on one of these before entering. 



The camera was placed on a rock five feet from the open- 

 ing, and carefully covered; the shutter was to be operated 

 with a thread running to a clump of bushes about twenty 

 yards distant. A few minutes after we had comfortably 

 seated oureslves in our ambush, a warning rattle was heard 

 from the bed of the brook, to be repeated a moment later 

 from close at hand. Guided by the sound, we soon located 

 the mother kingfisher perched on the lower limb of an oak 

 and, as we had expected, she held a small fish in her beak. 



She had not seen us come and was apparently very much 

 surprised to find a new, curious, bulky object (the camera) 

 so near her home. Surelv this hsd not been there when 



