218 BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



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

 straight forward on rapidly moving pinions, gleams his 

 mate, who alights on a stone far upstream, for she 

 has seen us, and is not desirous of our company. He 

 presently follows, and our watch is ended."" 



The actual facts of the Halcyon's nidification are prosaic 

 compared with the legendary version. It indeed comes as 

 a shock to discover that a bird of such gorgeous appear- 

 ance not only nests in a narrow tunnel in the side of a 

 bank, but that this habitation is often in a very foul 

 condition, littered with disgorged fish-bones and other 

 refuse. But such is the case. Sometimes a crevice in a 

 wall is used, or the tunnel is in the side of some sand-pit. 

 Generally, however, the hole is in a sandy bank sloping 

 towards water. The bank may be on the side of a small 

 stream, a large river, a pond, or a lake, or even on a 

 sheltered part of the coast -line. The tunnel is often dug 

 many feet into the bank, and slopes gently upwards, as a 

 rule. The same burrow suffices for many years. 



In a wider chamber at the end of the tunnel the eggs, 

 up to ten in number, but usually fewer, are laid on the 

 refuse or the bare earth. They approach the spherical, 

 are glossy in texture, and, as one would expect, pure 

 white in colour. The shell is strong and thick, but yet 

 curiously translucent. The stages which the nestlings go 

 through correspond to those of the young Woodpecker. 



The Kingfisher is resident on the whole, but has of 

 necessity to perform certain local movements when some 

 of its haunts become ice-bound. In Germany it is called 

 ' Ice-Bird,' because a hole in the ice may attract several 

 of the birds to the same spot. 



