344 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
“Some writer has mentioned that as soon as the 
young Kingfishers are able, they wander about their 
little homes until they are able to fly, but evidently his 
experience was limited. My four pictures of the young 
birds were taken by lifting them out of their nests and 
placing them in a proper place to be photographed in 
the light, but the first two pictures were taken in the 
positions in which they were naturally found in the nest. 
The first, when they were about two days old, was ob- 
tained on the 21st of May, 1899, and the young were not 
only found wrapped together in the nest, but the moment 
they were put on the ground, one at a time, though their 
eyes were still sealed, they immediately covered one 
another with their wings and wide bills, making such 
a tight ball that when any one shifted a leg, the whole 
mass would move like a single bird. This is a most 
sensible method of keeping warm, since the mother 
bird’s legs are so short that she could not stand over 
them, but, as they are protected from the wind and 
weather, they have no need of her. Their appearance 
is comical in the extreme, and all out of proportion. 
This clinging to one another is apparently kept up for 
at least ten days, for a week later, when nine days old, 
they were found in exactly a similar position. 
“When the young were first observed, they were ab- 
solutely naked, without the suggestion of a feather, 
and, unlike most young birds, showed no plumage of 
any kind until the regular final feathering, which was 
the same as that of the adult, began to appear. The 
growth of the birds was remarkably slow, and even 
when nine days old the feathers were Just beginning to 
