52 BIRDS OF THE WxlTER 



accustomed to man and broken to belief in 

 him. 



On September 4tli, then, these Kingfishers 

 were at work at the old original site. This 

 was almost at once abandoned, and the 

 birds then tunnelled in the same snag two 

 other bores, each, alas, terminating in the 

 old breeding cham]jer. There is practically 

 no rotten timber on this part of the run, 

 but I did get, after some trouble, a dry 

 willow block at about the proper stage of 

 decay, also two other logs, which, though 

 rather waterlogged, I hoped might do. The 

 first of these was securely wedged into a 

 living willow^ 's fork some five feet above 

 the ground and within twenty yards of the 

 original site in the willow snag. A narrow^ 

 augur hole, slightly sloping upwards, was 

 made, and the ejected wood grain allowed 

 to be noticeably visible. About the same 

 date one of the remaining logs was erected 

 in a suitable position on the lawn, and the 

 third was planted in a dry bank distant 

 some half-mile across the lake. 



Thereabouts, too, in the more suitable 

 cliffs, augur holes were bored. These were, 



