164 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGHi STORIES 



not float out of sight quickly. The young birds would 

 crane their necks and look hungrily at the fish below until 

 finally one more hungry or more bold than the rest would 

 make a dive for it. At first the aim was not good, and the 

 bird would miss even a dead fish more often than he suc- 

 ceeded in catching it. Usually, however, he fluttered about 

 the surface of the water until he got his fish, even tho he 

 had missed it when he made his plunge. Old birds never 

 hover about the water if they have missed their aim, for 

 they have learned that there is a vast difference between 

 a live active fish and one that is stunned and half dead. 

 During the first few days when the young birds became 

 too hungry, the mother would occasionally relent and feed 

 them, but before the week was over, no matter how hungry 

 they became, no food was coming until they caught it. 

 Within ten days the young birds were catching live fish 

 instead of half dead ones. 



Then a young bird would catch his fish, carry it to his 

 perch, whack it over the limb a few times, toss it in the 

 air, catch it by the head as it came down and swallow 

 it with as much skill as his mother. As soon as she was 

 convinced of the skill of each of her brood, she forsook 

 them entirely. I do not know whether she ultimately 

 drove them from the neighborhood or whether they left 

 voluntarily, but when July was past only the old birds 

 were to be seen in the neighborhood. I became too busy 

 to watch them longer, so never knew whether they reared 

 more than one brood that summer or not. I do know that 

 long before frost the pair had parted, her ladyship keeping 

 the good fishing ground in the vicinity of the nest, while 

 her spouse fished alone a half mile up the creek. 



The kingfisher is an exception to the general rule 



