WOOD AND WASTE 59 



Sites selected should be quite- open and 

 some three feet from the orifice of each 

 and on a lower plane should be a stout 

 perch, on which the birds can rest alter- 

 nately during their burrowing operations. 

 It will be serviceable, too, at a later period, 

 when the parents are carrying in food, for 

 the birds like to rest there a moment near 

 the nest, before bidding daylight farewell 

 and taking their plunge into darloiess. 



During the past season one other King- 

 fisher's nest was got, but too near the public 

 road and at too great a distance from tlie 

 homestead to admit of putting up a screen. 

 It was built in a sandbank, and in it two 

 nestlings were reared. 



