128 NEWS FROM THE BIRDS. 



my course homeward to examine it. Sure 

 enough, there was a hole in the steep, sandy 

 bank, just as I had expected, and I felt certain 

 it must be the nest of the kingfisher. 



But it was too late to tarry, and so I 

 hurried home. In a day or two I went back 

 to make certainty doubly sure about the hole in 

 the bank. A hundred or more yards away, in 

 a sloping field, I flung myself on the ground, 

 and determined to w^ait and watch. And I 

 waited a good while, too. By and by, how- 

 ever, there was a loud, rattling cry, and then 

 the kingfisher came sweeping up from the val- 

 ley with a fish in her beak. But her sharp 

 eye soon espied me, and then she set up a 

 series of screams that made the welkin ring, 

 and that proclaimed her secret to all the world. 

 It was a long time before she would leave the 

 apple tree in which she had taken refuge, and 

 I was going to miss my dinner ; but at last 

 my patience w^as rewarded ; she dashed to the 

 very hole in the bank which I had previously 

 seen, and dropped her quarry into the hungry 

 mouths within. Then she swept like an arrow 

 down the hill to the creek. I could not bring 

 myself to dig out that nest, much as I wanted 

 to see its contents, for it seemed too heartless 

 a deed. 



