1890-91.] The Kmgfisher. 411 



U.—THE KINGFISHER. 



By Mr TOM SPEEDY. 



{Read Dec. 3Jf, 1890.) 



The kingfisher is the gaudiest of British birds. To many 

 such brilliant plumage is associated only with the tropics ; 

 but no country can produce amongst its birds a more re- 

 splendent azure and other beautiful tints than we find in the 

 kingfisher, living at our own doors. The kingfisher is mixed 

 up with a deal of superstition. It is supposed to be the " hal- 

 cyon " of the Greeks, of which bird many curious stories have 

 been told. The kingfisher may be found on the banks of almost 

 every stream in the south of Scotland, but I have never seen 

 it in the Highlands. Mr St John, however, in his admirable 

 book, ' Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands,' 

 records having twice seen one in Morayshire, remarking that 

 their visits to the northern parts of our cou.ntry are very rare. 



The kingfisher generally constructs its nest in a hole on 

 the bank of a stream. Whether it also makes this hole itself, 

 or takes possession of that of a water-rat, I am not prepared 

 to state, but I am inclined to think that the latter is its 

 normal habit. A section of a river-bank, showing the nest 

 of a kingfisher, is to be seen in the South Kensington 

 Museum, and is very interesting. The floor of the hole 

 where kingfishers make their nest is always covered with the 

 disgorged bones of the small fish which constitute their food. 

 It appears that they are incapable of digesting the bones and 

 scales of fish, which they throw up again in the same manner 

 as owls are known to eject pellets of fur and other indigest- 

 ible substances. It has frequently been asserted that the nest 

 is made of fish-bones. This, however, is not the case. The 

 bones and scales of fish are found in profusion in the hole, 

 but that they are put there for the purpose of building the 

 nest I do not believe. The nest is lined with a sort of down, 

 apparently derived from some plant such as the cotton-grass. 

 The eggs, of a pinkish tint, are from five to seven in number. 



When bird-nesting in my boyhood, I one day observed a 



