KINGFISHER 121 



chitis, pneumonia and rheumatism. With their porcu- 

 pine-quill-looking feathers, their alligator-like heads and 

 bills and their quarrelsome dispositions, the young are 

 comical little clowns. One would suppose that a family 

 of these birds would be congenial, cooped up as they are 

 in a small chamber during their early lives, but such is 

 not the case; they are constantly pecking at each other, 

 refusing to be shoved about without vigorous protest. 



The young have the peculiar habit of walking back- 

 ward on the whole length of the tarsus, or shank bone — 

 a habit that some claim is due to backing in and out of 

 the entrance tunnel on the approach of the parents with 

 the usual food supply of frogs and minnows. (Fig. 54.) 



Kingfishers fish from a perch or, like Brown Peli- 

 cans, while flying, or from a hovering position from ten 

 to thirty feet above the water. A minnow rarely escapes 

 the rapid and accurate plunge of one of these birds, 

 the toes of which are constructed so they can hold a 

 slimy fish against a limb while perching. Having cap- 

 tured a fish they kill it by whipping it against a post or 

 the limb on which they perched before diving for the 

 prey. When a given reach of a stream abounding in 

 small fish has been once pre-empted by a pair of King- 

 fishers any intrusion upon the territory by another bird 

 meets with assertive protest. The fishing hole of a King- 

 fisher must not be poached on by any of its king neigh- 

 bors. Its only song seems to be a kind of chatter or 

 rattle, usually given with much enthusiasm. 



If you are canoeing or walking along the bank of a 

 small stream, any time between March and December, on 

 rounding a bend you may discover this king perched on 

 his throne overhanging the water. The bird takes flight, 

 with much grumbling protest and disappears around the 

 next bend, only to have you rout him out again. This 

 performance the bird, like the Little Green Heron, con- 

 tinues to repeat until it decides to return to its usual 

 haunts, when it circumvents you by flying up over the 

 treetops, all the while chattering Kingfisher objections. 



My picture of this bird was made by passing a line 

 across the tunnel entrance and fastening it to the shutter 

 release. The Kingfisher threw the shutter by passing 

 across the taut line. The seven little kings were the 

 young birds belonging to this nest. (Fig. 55.) 



