58 BY-WAVS AND BIRD-NOTES. 
whose prey is taken from clear, moving water— 
are peculiarly marked underneath. On_ his 
breast, next to his white necklace, is a band of 
pale blue, touched here and there with light 
brown, and below this to his tail he is white. 
Now, a fish looking up through the water has 
the kingfisher between him and the sky. 
Those sky-blue and silver-white feathers cor- 
respond exactly with the water-light and sky- 
light as they are broken up and blended to- 
gether by the tiny chopping waves. When the 
kingfisher makes a harpoon of itself, and, beak 
downward, darts from its perch above the 
water to fall upon a fish, it presents two par- 
allel curved lines, one of which is mainly 
bright blue, the other mostly pure white ; these 
seen through moving water blend into a soft 
mist-gray, perfectly in tone with the prevailing 
tint of most brook-water. ’ 
In connection with observations on the mo- 
tions of birds it is well to recall the fact that 
nearly all the night-birds fly on wings that 
make no sound. An owl slips through the air 
with the utter silence of a shadow. ‘This ac- 
cords with the stillness of the night. It also 
serves the bird a good turn, for the least noise 
would startle his prey at a time when all nature 
is hushed and breathless. I have observed, 
as has every nature-student, I suppose, that 
nearly, if not quite all, the night insects are 
comparatively noiseless in their flight. The 
giant moth does not hum like a bumble-bee or 
a humming-bird. The mosquito is the noisiest 
with his wings of all the night-flyers. But I 
must not get over the line from birds to in- 
sects, while on this subject of harmony, for a 
study of butterflies alone would fill more space 
