344 BRITISH BIRDS. 
commonly on the banks of the Derwent in Derbyshire; and this little 
bright feathered gem is, with the Grey Wagtail, the Dipper, and the Sand- 
piper, one of the most interesting river-side birds of this wild romantic 
district of limestone crags and steep rocky glens and moors. I once took 
the nest of this bird on the banks of this stream near Ashopton. Some of 
the birds’ droppings near the entrance of the hole caught the attention of 
my friend Mr. Charles Doncaster and myself, although we had for some 
time previously been aware that the bird was building in the immediate 
neighbourhood, several holes having been commenced and abandoned. 
The hole in question was nearly straight, and we put a walking-stick 
up it for nearly three feet; it was of an irregular tunnel-shape rising 
gradually from the entrance. Having enlarged the hole for about a 
foot, I thrust my hand im as far as I could reach. I found the bottom of 
the passage lined with a black or dark green gluey substance smelling 
strongly of fish, and almost as sticky as bird-lime. After digging and en- 
larging the passage nearly a foot further we reached the end—a chamber 
about eight inches in diameter, with two handfuls of white dry fish-bones 
at the bottom, apparently those of very small fish (vertebre, jaw-bones, 
and a profusion of ribs like short hairs, most likely of the fry of the trout). 
Underneath the fish-bones was a liming of the same glue as in the passage, 
and upon them three round shining pink eggs. The Kingfisher, in spite 
of its brilliant dress, is a slatternly bird. It may fairly be called an “ ill 
bird,” since it fouls its own nest and its peerless eggs, but not a speck of 
the filthy glue was to be seen on them. This substance is composed of 
decaying fish and the droppings of the birds, and in many nests swarms 
with maggots. The Kingfisher does not make any more nest than that 
which the ejected fish-bones supply. No grass, straws, or feathers serve 
as a bed for the eggs; and in the exceptional cases where such material 
has been found, it was most probably the remains of a Martin’s nest or 
that of a water-rat, in whose holes the Kingfisher sometimes rears its 
young. ‘The hole is bored rather slowly, and takes from one to two weeks 
to complete. 
Upon this nest of fish-bones, if nest it can be properly called, the female 
Kingfisher deposits her round shining- white eggs, from six to eight or nine 
in number; I have a clutch of the latter number, taken in Oxfordshire. 
As is the case with most white eggs before they are blown, the yolk inside 
gives them a beautiful pmk appearance. They vary in length from -95 
to *87 inch, and in breadth from ‘8 to ‘72 inch. Kingfishers’ eggs are 
not easily confused with those of any other British bird; for their rotund 
shape distinguishes them from those of the Woodpeckers, and their size 
from those of the Bee-eaters, with which latter birds they, however, show 
considerable affinity. 
Both parents assist in incubation, and when the young are hatched they 
