THE COMMON KINGFISHER. 69 



rights of an established owner. A vigorous battle, accompanied 

 by any amount of shrill screaming, is the consequence, and 

 when the weaker bird turns tail, he is pursued by the victor 

 with great fury, the chase being often carried on high in the 

 air. When thus seen, the occasional glimpses of the brilliant 

 blue backs and chestnut breasts of the birds, as they shoot 

 along, are always pleasing. 



In the autumn, the number of Kingfishers on any large river 

 is increased by the influx of birds which have been nesting in 

 out-of-the-way places, and have frequented brooks and lakes 

 during the summer. A considerable autumnal migration takes 

 place, and the Kingfisher may then be seen on our southern 

 coasts in some numbers, frequenting reedy ditches and sluices, 

 and not uncommonly the open shore, where the birds feed on 

 small shell-fish. The principal food of the Kingfisher, how- 

 ever, consists of fish, and these it catches with great dexterity, 

 sitting generally on an exposed post or bough, from which it 

 keeps a keen eye on the water below. The speed with w^hich 

 it flies from one perch to another, often crossing a field in 

 passing from haunt to haunt, is truly wonderful, as is also the 

 w^ay in which it will suddenly arrest its flight on arriving at its 

 station, and settle down without any apparent slowing off of its 

 headlong flight. When first settled, the bird often bobs its 

 head up and down and from side to side, and, in the act of 

 perching, it may be seen to elevate the tail, as if to secure an 

 immediate balance. 



Nest. — None, that can properly be so called. The birds 

 bore for themselves, in a sandy bank, a long tunnel, at which 

 both male and female labour. At the end of this tunnel is a 

 chamber, in which the eggs are laid. Sometimes stones or 

 roots obtrude in the course of the boring, and the birds have 

 to seek another place, but in one instance I remember finding 

 a nest with seven eggs in the middle of a wood, and at a con- 

 siderable distance from the river. An old tree in a bed of 

 sand had been blown down and its roots were exposed and 

 standing out into the air. Underneath these overhanging 

 roots the birds had mined their tunnel, which, after a foot or 

 so, w^as obstructed by roots of considerable size, but the birds 

 had driven their hole over and under these obstructions, until 



