THE KINGFISHER FAMILY 17k 
water out of sight, and in a moment come up 
with a small fish in his beak. Then he goes 
back to his perch and beats the fish to death, 
before he swallows it. He swallows it whole and 
head first, because the fins might stick in his 
throat if he took it tail first. After a while he 
throws up a little ball of the bones, scales, and 
skin of the fish he has eaten. It is said that the 
kingfisher can take a very large fish. One was 
shot who had swallowed a fish so long that the 
tail stuck out of his mouth, and could not get 
down. 
The nest of the kingfisher is in the bank of a 
river or lake. The birds first cut a passage or 
hallway. Sometimes this is only four feet long, 
and straight. But when stones or roots are in 
the way, it will be much longer and have many 
turns. At the end of this passage is the king- 
fisher nursery. This is a round room nearly a 
foot across, with a roof rounded up over it. It 
is a little higher than the passageway so that 
water will not run into it. | 
Sometimes it takes the birds two or three weeks 
to make one of these nests, as we might expect 
when we think they have only beaks and feet to 
work with. Usually it does not take so long. 
If the pair are not disturbed, they will use the 
same nest year after year. Sometimes the bed 
