HALCYONID. O75 
" prise in the sea itself. In some situations in which 
I have seen the Kingfisher fishing from the wild 
rocks, it must in stormy weather find considerable 
difficulty in maintaining itself; for instance, on the 
western part of the island of Guernsey where even a 
moderate breeze makes sea enough to interrupt its 
occupation, and heavy westerly gales must quite 
put a stop to it for many days together. 
The nest of the Kingfisher is always placed in a 
hole, generally in one dug by itself, if its fortune has 
placed it in a situation where it can find a bank 
sufficiently soft to allow it to dig for itself; other- 
wise a hole amongst the roots of alder or other trees 
growing by the side of a stream, or a deep crevice in 
@ rock, will serve its turn; but if some such con- 
venient place cannot be found it will quit the imme- 
diate vicinity of water, and seek for a place further 
off, instances being recorded of its breeding quite as 
much as a mile from the water, in which case the 
parent birds must have a hard time of it to supply 
food for their ever-voracious young. It does not 
appear quite clearly made out yet whether the King- 
fisher builds any nest in its hole: it is confidently 
asserted by some that it does make a nest entirely of 
fish-bones, and it is equally confidently asserted by 
others that these bones are not brought into the 
hole for the purpose of building a nest, but that the 
young ones, being fed upon fish, reject the bones in 
the same way that Hawks reject feathers and bones, 
