446 ALCEDINID^. 



gestible portion of their food, and in the economy of this 

 species the castings play an important part, for there cannot 

 now be a question that of them is formed the nest, as distin- 

 guished from the hole in which it is placed. The entrance 

 of this is just large enough to admit the bird easily, and 

 thence a tunnel from eight or ten inches to three feet long 

 runs, generally with an upward slope, to a chamber about 

 six inches in diameter. In this the eggs are laid, sometimes 

 on the bare soil, but at others on the fishbones already 

 ejected by the birds and allowed to accumulate until they 

 amount to a handful or more.* These bones are cast up as 

 pellets, but are apparently worked by the bird's movements, 

 as she sits, into the shape of a cup ; and, whether by her 

 pressure, by the moisture of the soil or by both, they 

 generally cohere so as to become a very pretty nest, more 

 than an inch deep and quite smooth within, which with care 

 may be removed so as to preserve its structure, though a very 

 little shaking will quickly reduce it to a mere heap of its 

 component materials. A large number of fishbones are, 

 however, not unfrequently found in the passage leading to 

 the nest during incubation, but especially after the young 

 are hatched, the accumulation often becoming very great. 

 These are mixed with decaying fishes, brought as food for the 

 brood, but for some reason or other left in the tunnel, as 

 well as with their fluid excretions, forming a dripping fetid 

 mass, almost walling them in, and swarming with maggots. 

 The eggs, from six to eight in number, have a pure white 

 translucent shining shell, are often almost globular in shape, 

 and measure from '95 to -84 by from '78 to -69 in. 



* It must be remarked that very divergent opinions have been held on this 

 point by ornithologists, some of whom are apt to think that birds' habits never 

 vary, and that what has on one occasion been observed must always be the rule. 

 At the same time the statement of several comparatively modern writers at home 

 (Mag. Nat. Hist. iii. p. 175, and iv. p. 450) and abroad, that the nest is formed 

 of wool, feathers, twigs and moss, is so wholly contradicted by the majority of 

 observers, that it must have been made in error, as remarked by Leisler (Ann. 

 Wetterau. Gesellsch. i. p. 292). More than two centuries ago Sir T. Browne 

 (Misc. Tracts, p. 107) shewed himself well acquainted with the real materials of 

 a Kingfisher's nest, for which, as Rennie (Archit. B. p. 51) shews, some classical 

 authors seem to have taken the shell of a sea-nrchin. 



