116 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



about a foot higher up and about the same distance to one side. The 

 old birds had evidently discovered my imperfectly closed back door, 

 and either mistrusted its security, or else a heavy rain had soaked 

 down into the loosened earth and caused them to make alterations. 

 They had completelj'' closed up the old chamber and packed it tightly 

 with earth and disgorged fish bones." 



Mrs. Florence M. Bailey (1928) makes the following apt quota- 

 tion from the writings of Professor Herrick: 



From the time of birth the young lie huddled in a cluster in their dark 

 underground chamber ... As they grow in size and strength the monotony 

 of sitting still, often with legs and wings interlocked, must become very 

 great, and . . . they soon begin to bite and tease one another like young 

 puppies. Should one be hard pressed, the only way of escape lies along the nar- 

 row passage, which they naturally traverse head first; but the instinct to re- 

 turn to the warm family cluster is strong, and to do this they are obliged to 

 walk backwards. Again when the rattle of the alma mater announcing the 

 capture of another fish is heard, each struggles to get down the narrow 

 passage-way first, but when the parent enters the hole she hustles them all 

 back. 



The young are fed by their two parents while they remain in the 

 nest, and for some time afterward while they are learning to fish 

 for themselves. Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock (1905) made the following 

 observations : 



By care in concealment we were able to discover that the adult came to the 

 nest on the first day with no visible supply of food in the bill but with a gullet 

 conspicuously swollen. We had previously excavated the nest from the rear 

 making a false back to it so that it would be protected from the weather and 

 at the same time open easily. As soon as feeding was completed and the adult 

 out of sight, we opened the nest at the false back, took out the young, then one 

 day old, and examined the crops. They contained a dark gray, oily mass, nearly 

 fluid and very ill smelling, but with no bones or scales in it. If fish they were 

 very small and digested. Returning the young fishers to the tunnel, we closed 

 it. Two days later the experiment was repeated with the same results. Four 

 days later, or the seventh day after hatching, we examined again. This time 

 one of the nestlings had swallowed several small fish about one and one half 

 inches long and the others v/ere still hungry. As yet we had not seen either of 

 the adults bring visible food and the most frequent feedings had been forty min- 

 utes apart, I believe all by regurgitation. No record was kept from the seventh 

 to the fourteenth day when an examination was made for the third time. 

 We now found the young showing well developed pin feathers, and there were 

 traces of disgorged fish bones and scales in the nest which had not been there 

 before. The crops examined showed fish only slightly digested and regurgita- 

 tive feeding had evidently given place wholly or in part to fresh food. On this 

 day one of the adults brought several fish, possibly four inches long to the nest 

 in different journeys. Examinations made on the twenty-first day revealed the 

 same food conditions as the fourteenth. The pile of fish bones and scales was 

 a trifle larger but was partially buried in the earth. There was surprisingly 

 little of this debris in the nest or tunnel but the ground seemed to be saturated 

 with fishy oil. On the tv»'enty-eighth day the young kingfishers resented being 

 examined or photographed, and made good their escape when taken from the 

 nest. 



