674 ALCEDO ISPIDA. 



headlong into the water, reappears in a moment, flutters, sweeps 

 off in a curved line, wheels round, and returns to his post. 

 The minnow in his bill he beats against the decayed stump until 

 it is dead, then tossing up his head, swallows it, and resumes 

 his ordinary posture, as if nothing had happened. Swarms of 

 insects flutter and gambol around, but he heeds them not. A 

 painted butterfly at length comes up, fluttering in its desultory 

 flight, and as it hovers over the hyacinths, unsuspicious of 

 danger, the Kingfisher springs from his perch, and pursues him, 

 but without success. There, swift as the barbed arrow, darting 

 straight forward, on rapidly moving pinions, gleams his mate, 

 who alights on a stone far up the stream, for she has seen us, 

 and is not desirous of our company. He presently follows, 

 and our watch being ended, we may saunter a while along the 

 grassy slopes, inhaling the fragrance of the primrose, and listen- 

 ing to the joyous notes of the Blackbird, that from the summit 

 of yon tall tree pours forth his soul in music. 



It is chiefly by the still pools of rivers and brooks that the 

 Kingfisher is met with. Although not jolentiful in any part 

 of the country, nor anywhere gregarious, it is generally dis- 

 persed in England, and occurs in the southern and part of the 

 middle division of Scotland, but has not, I believe, been met 

 with beyond Inverness, for the Kingfishers, so called, of the 

 north, are merely Dippers. It remains with us all the year, 

 shifting its station on the streams, and in summer selecting 

 some place having a steep bank, in a hole in which it deposits 

 its eggs. I have once only seen the nestling place of this bird : 

 it was a large hole, among the roots of a tree on the bank of 

 the Water of Leith, and in the neighbourhood of numerous 

 burrows of the w^ater-rats. JNly friend Mr Weir however 

 writes me thus : " In July 1836, in a bank of sand upon the 

 Water of Leith, I discovered a hole in which they bred. It 

 was about twelve feet above the level of the river. The roots 

 of a large beech tree hung like a network in front of it, and 

 kept it from being seen. The hole was two feet three inches 

 in length from the orifice, sloping upwards, being narrow at 

 the entrance, but widening in the interior, and rounded at the 

 extremity, in order to give the birds room to turn. Upon the 



