162 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



excavation in the bank was all the protection her babies 

 required. But with the large number of snakes that lived 

 along that creek, every one of which had the habit of 

 crawling into holes, it has always been a mystery to me 

 that none of them bothered the young kingfishers. More 

 than that, Bobby Mink traveled up and down the creek 

 every night catching crawfish, minnows, and anything 

 else that came in his way. Knowing that the mink has a 

 habit of poking his nose into every hole he passes and is 

 never content to stop until he has explored it to the end, 

 I have wondered that he did not dine here, but doubtless 

 the mother bird was in the hole at night and her powerful, 

 sharp beak ought to be sufficient weapon to drive away 

 even a hungry mink. 



Then both birds were even more absorbed in fishing 

 than usual, but as at that time there were schools of min- 

 nows everywhere, it was not difficult to catch plenty even 

 for a family of five babies. 



I had supposed that a kingfisher was very sure to make 

 a catch when he dove for a fish, but, whether or not neces- 

 sity led them to take greater chances than ordinarily, these 

 birds missed fully twice as often as they succeeded in 

 catching the fish after which they dove. I often watched 

 one of these birds sitting on a sycamore limb over a favor- 

 ite pool. A white gleam would flash from the water, show- 

 ing that a minnow was playing beneath, when there would 

 immediately be a splash in the water. If the bird failed to 

 make a catch, she usually promptly returned to the same 

 limb and waited patiently for an opportunity to try again. 

 If she caught her minnow, she usually flew directly to the 

 nest without stopping to kill it. She alighted on a stone 

 near the entrance, however, and beat the fish over the stone 



