Pond Life 
each side got stuck in its throat it would 
be uncomfortable, if not dangerous. 
Many birds have lost their lives in this 
very same way—kinefishers especially ; 
and other fish sometimes have cause to 
repent having tried to swallow him. 
Disagreeable and pugnacious to the 
last, he erects all his sharp prickles, 
and sticks half-way down his captor’s 
gullet, obstinately refusing either to be 
swallowed any further, or to come up 
again the way he went down. 
All the same, I have seen a kingfisher 
—a young bird, too—catch ever so many 
sticklebacks in a summer’s afternoon 
and be none the worse. You may per- 
chance see a kingfisher on the watch 
for one at the pond, especially if there 
happens to be a post, or bit of railing, or 
some overhanging branch on which it can 
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