KINGFISHEE. 32 1 



that wlierever tlie nest is newly tenanted, the eggs 

 are laid on the sand, and the nest of fish bones, such as 

 it is, is gradually formed by the sitting birds. In 

 Suffolk, according to Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, 

 their nests " have been found in holes in gravel pits at 

 the distance of a mile from any large pond or river." 

 In such localities the previous borings of the sand- 

 martin are most probably made use of, but I cannot agree 

 with Mr. Newman"^ that the kingfisher invariably adapts 

 the deserted holes of the sand-martin to its own pur- 

 poses. May not the statements of some authors that 

 kingfishers' nests have been found with grasses, straws, 

 and such like materials, mixed with fish bones, be 

 accounted for by presuming that some former occu- 

 pant of the hole, such as either land or water rat, 

 had previously introduced these foreign substances? 

 I cannot conclude this account of the kingfishers' 

 nest without quoting Sir Thomas Browne's descrip- 

 tion as given in his '^answer to queries about fishes, 

 birds, and insects" (Wilkin's ed., vol. iv., p. 184), 

 as usual exhibiting the accuracy of observation of 

 that most remarkable man. "Halcyon is rendered a 

 a kingfisher, a bird commonly known among us, and by 

 zoographers and naturals the same is named ispicla, 

 a well coloured bird, frequenting streams and rivers, 

 building in holes of pits, like some martins, about the 

 end of the spring, in whose nests we have found little 

 else than innumerable small fish bones, and white round 

 eggs of a smooth and polished surface." The young birds, 

 though rather dif&cult to rear, are extremely amusing 

 when brought up from the nest. Mr. Sayer, a bird- 

 stuffer, in this city, had four alive in the summer of 

 1862, which were kept in a small aviary where they 



* "Private Life of the Kingfisher," by Ed. Newman, F.L.S., 

 F.Z.S.— "Field," 1865, p. 108. 

 2t 



