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V>y J. H. Curj^EN. 

 (Continued from page w). 



Young Kingfishers have their full plumage and 

 colour from the nest : the adult may be a little 

 brighter, but I have failed to notice any great 

 difference. No one can possibly conceive the 

 difference between the beautiful sheen and lustre of 

 living specimens and the comparative dulness of a 

 dead or stuffed specimen. In death the sheen and 

 lustre depart after a few days, never to return. 



The nest of the Kingfisher is usually placed 

 in a hole in the bank of a stream or river ; 

 sometimes in the hole of the masonry of a bridge; 

 but other sites are sometimes chosen. In one 

 instance, I knew the Kingfisher to build its nest in a 

 high bank, in a field, quite a quarter of a mile from the 

 stream it frequented — the banks of the stream being 

 very low and the land flat, there was no facility for the 

 birds to nest, as in a storni}^ time the land was often 

 covered by the stream overflowing its banks. Another 

 strange site for a nest was pointed out to me by a man 

 whose dut}' it is to keep clear of water-weeds and 

 other obstructions the water courses of the large 

 dykes or phines (as they are called in this district) that 

 drain the moors. On the banks are some very large 

 willow or withy trees. In the head of a pollard about 

 eight feet high, about five years ago, a Kingfisher 

 built its nest, and hatched and reared a brood 

 successfully. It has never built there since. 



The Kingfisher, if undisturbed, frequently occu- 

 pies the same hole jear after year. That I can prove, 

 for in the season of 1900 1 obtained seven eggs out of a 

 nest. (If I had not had them someone else would — I 

 took them to induce the birds to seek safer quarters^ 



