KINGFISHERS 105 



found even in compounds which contain no fishing 

 places. 



I once saw a white-breasted kingfisher hawking in- 

 sects on the Poona racecourse, just as you may see the 

 " blue jay " hunting them on the Madras course. There 

 is no water near the course at Poona. The fact of the 

 matter is, the kingfisher is changing its habits. It finds 

 that fishing is a poor profession, so is giving it up and 

 going in for insect catching. It is becoming less and 

 less of a fish-eating bird and more and more of an 

 insectivorous one. It has advanced to such a stage that 

 a sheet of water containing fish is no longer a sine qua 

 non of its existence, as is the case with most kingfishers. 

 Hence I make so bold as to prophesy that in years to 

 come the white- breasted kingfisher will lose completely 

 the knack of fishing ; it will altogether forsake the water 

 and obtain its living just as a roller does, and may one 

 day even tackle snakes ! 



This bird can be kept in captivity. In 1900 Mr. E. W. 

 Harper sent to the Bombay Natural History Society a 

 most interesting account of some white-breasted king- 

 fishers which he was keeping as pets. " Last summer," 

 he wrote, "having obtained another white-breasted king- 

 fisher, I determined to adopt a different method of feed- 

 ing it. Small pieces of raw lean meat were pushed 

 down the bird's throat, until, in a day or two, it took 

 the meat of its own accord. This meat diet was varied 

 with pieces of fish, the bird always striking its food (as 

 it would have done a live fish) upon its perch three or 

 four times before swallowing it. This was done with 

 a jerking movement of the whole body. 



