16 KINGFISHER. 
sure precision, frequently after hovering like the Kestrel, and 
plunging like the Tern, and first kills either by the force of 
its bill, or by knocking it against a rail, a stone, or the 
ground. One has been known to plunge from a branch, at 
a height of six feet from the water. The bones are cast up 
in the form of pellets. The fish that it catches it swallows 
head foremost. 
The note is a shrill pipe, resembling that of the Sandpiper, 
but louder. 
The birds pair in May, and nidification commences imme- 
diately. 
The nest is placed two or three feet within a hole in a 
bank, that, for the most part, of a water-rat, which the bird 
enlarges or alters as need be. It is said also sometimes to 
hollow one out for itself. It slants downwards, the principles 
of drainage being sufficiently understood by instinct: the same 
situation is perseveringly resorted to from year to year. Much 
discussion has taken place on the question, whether the 
Kingfisher forms an artificial nest or not, the eggs being 
often found ‘on the cold ground,’ and often on a layer of 
fish bones. My. theory has for some time been that no nest 
is formed, but, that the bird resorting to the same locality 
year after year, a conglomerate of bones is by degrees formed, 
on which the eggs being necessarily laid, a nominal nest is 
in such case found. Since forming this theory I see that it 
is borne out by other writers. One has been found in Corn- 
wall, in May, 1817, which was composed of dry grass, lined 
with hairs, and a few feathers; so at least says ‘C,’ in the 
‘Magazine of Natural History,’ vol. 1, page 175. The nest 
has been found at a distance from water, in a holein a bank 
frequented by Sand Martins; and one is recorded in ‘Jesse’s 
Gleanings in Natural History,’ as having been placed in the 
bank of a dry gravel pit, near Hampton Court; another has 
been found ‘in a hole on the margin of the sea, a quarter 
of a mile distant from a rivulet.’ The young remain in the 
nest until fully fledged, and able to fly. For a short time 
they then, perched on some neighbouring branch, receive their 
food from their parents, who both purvey for them, and whose 
approach they greet with clamorous twittering; but soon 
learn to fish for themselves. 
The eggs, six or seven in number, are transparent white, 
and rather rotund in form. 
Male; weight, one ounce and a half; length, seven inches; 
/ 
