WOOD AND WASTE 47 



''All right! All right! But you try first" 

 (just like a man!) and the hen would 

 pitch Avithin a yard of my head right on 

 the log, hesitate, and her heart fail, ])orhaps, 

 at the last moment, or perhaps she would 

 successfully run the blockade, an action, 

 when you came to consider it, really ap- 

 palling to her imagination for as these King- 

 fishers always backed out tail foremost, 

 there was the dreadful chance of being 

 caught defenceless by the rump. 



Then there were, besides, long, low-toned, 

 earnest guttural conversations of ^'klue-e, 

 klue-e, klue-e," repeated or exchanged 

 again and again and again. 



In emerging from the screen, my sudden 

 reappearaiice must have been an amaze- 

 ment to the birds beyond any amazement 

 experienced by Kingfishers since the world 

 began, and no doubt when, as racial custom 

 ordains, and the birds repair to winter 

 quarters, these two will scandalise the 

 respectable commmiity with their tales. 

 They will relate Iioaa- a leafy cocoon grew 

 up in two days near their willow snag, 

 how their nest was investigated, yet spared. 



