438 PICARIAN' BIRDS 



haunts kingfishers have now more or less completely disappeared ; 

 but they arc still to be met with on the upper reaches of the Thames, 

 and there are localities in Norfolk where the sight of a whole family 

 of these birds is far from uncommon in summer. 



Water is essential to the existence of kingfishers, which feed almost 

 entirely on fishes, although this diet may be varied by a meal of 

 tadpoles in spring or of insects at any season ; and although they 

 arc usually to be found in the neighbourhood of freshwatcrs, they 

 occasionally betake themselves even in summer to the coast and obtain 

 their food from the sea, as the writer has witnessed in Devonshire. In 

 the breeding-season they of course associate in pairs, but at other times 

 of the year the\' may be found either in couples or singly ; each pair 

 or individual having its particular tcrritor\', from which intruders are 

 relentlessly driven away. A solitary kingfisher sitting either on a 

 post or rail or a bare branch, intently watching the water for a passing 

 fish, is one of the prettiest sights of English river-scenery, only to be 

 exceeded in beauty when the bird makes a sudden plunge into the 

 water, to rise again with a struggling minnow in its beak, or darts up 

 or down stream in search of a fresh station, with wings and body 

 gleaming in the sunlight like an azure meteor. The flight, although 

 strong, swift, and direct, is not generally prolonged, and is usually so 

 low that the bird seems almost to skim the water. A clear whistling 

 note, uttered at frequent intervals, is characteristic of all kingfishers ; 

 and when one bird is driving away an intruder from its domain, the 

 combat is made known by loud screaming cries. 



To the old superstition of " halcyon days " during the nesting of 

 the kingfisher no detailed reference is necessary. The laying-season 

 usually commences in May, the pure white eggs, which are usually 

 six or seven in number, although .sometimes as many as eight or nine, 

 being deposited in a large chamber at the end of a long tunnel driven 

 by the birds themselves in the bank of a river, pool, or lake, or 

 occasionally in the ground at some distance from water. Fish-bones 

 cast up by the parent birds are generally to be found in the nesting- 

 chamber, and it is commonly stated that the eggs themselves are laid 

 on a heap of debris of this nature. This, however, according to some 

 observers, is an error, and the accumulation of fish-bones around the 

 eggs is accidental rather than intentional. Occasionally, at any rate 

 in Ireland, a second clutch of eggs is laid ; eggs having been taken in 

 July from a hole where a brood had previously been reared. 



When inland waters arc hartl bound in frost, kingfishers are com- 

 pelled in most cases either to betake themselves to the coast or perish 



