BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 191 



that kincrfishers chance to catch. Sometimes, indeed, it is 

 not content to swallow the wee thing in a commonplace 

 way, but, as the toucans often do with their food, must 

 needs throw it up into the air, and catch it with open throat 

 head first as it falls. And if you listen you will hear the 

 kingfisher compliment itself upon its cleverness with a 

 congratulatory little chirrup. So, too, when it misses its 

 aim at a passing fish — for it does miss it sometimes — it 

 comes back to its perch with a cheery little " peep-peep," 

 as much as to say " Never mind." And when it tlies off 

 down the stream, startled by your sudden coming, you may, 

 if you have quick ears, hear it comforting itself in a nervous 

 sort of way with a succession of "peeps," but if you go and 

 hide behind the hedge or a bush, you will very soon see it 

 returning, a swift flash of orange and blue, and lo ! there 

 is the kingfisher back again just where you first saw it, on 

 its pliant twig, " with the small breath of the water shaken," 

 and its clever eye fixed upon the water beneath. 



For, like flycatchers, shrikes and other birds, it returns, 

 if it can, always to one " post of observation," and just as 

 the dragon-fly at the edge of the stream keeps flying 

 back to the same reed after every excursion, so the king- 

 fisher, though you have just seen it go darting off like a 

 blue gem on wings, in and out of ever so many twists and 

 turns of the litde stream, comes back, and in a surprisingly 

 short time, to the very spot it started from. 



