230 



The food of kingfishers consists wholly of small fish up 

 to four inches in length. They are very persistent in their 

 fishing, as much so as the man that often sits with his line 

 dangling in the water for several hours without getting a 

 bite. I once watched one of these birds, that happened to 



Fig. 196. A HANDSOME FAMILY. 



be perched where I could see it from my blind as I was 

 taking pictures at a Vireo nest, and for two hours it sat per- 

 fectly still, watching the water below it, before it got a 

 chance to plunge and then it missed the fish. However, they 

 make a very fair percentage of successful strikes, always 

 catching their prey between the opened mandibles. 



