244 ■ RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



holes, usually the nesting cavity. He will sometimes 

 alight on stumps and branches projecting from the 

 water, and sit quiet and motionless, but on your ap- 

 proach he darts quickly away, often uttering a feeble 

 seep seep as he goes. 



Should the reader chance to know of a haunt of the 

 Kingfisher, he may, by exercising the utmost caution, 

 observe the bird when obtaining its food — a sight by the 

 way of unequalled pleasure and wonderment. See him 

 sitting on his favourite stump, for he chooses some point 

 of vantage to which he daily repairs to secure his prey 

 and bask in the sun's genial rays, so motionless as to 

 appear but a part of the stump itself. But the King- 

 fisher is intently watching the troutlets playing in the 

 pool below him. At last his chance arrives, and with 

 incredible speed he poises himself for an instant and then 

 dashes boldly into the water, and before we have time 

 for thought he is under the surface. A few brief 

 moments and he again appears in sight — successful. 

 With the fish crosswise in his strong beak he again 

 repairs to the stump, and then we see how he disposes 

 of it With a jerk he deftly throws the fish into the air, 

 and as it falls he catches it head first, and swallows it 

 there and then. This, I believe, is the Kingfisher's only 

 method of fishing, and therefore he never molests any fish 

 too large for him to swallow whole. All the bones and 

 other indigestible parts of his food are cast up in pellets. 

 The food of the Kingfisher is not composed entirely of 

 fish, far I have taken the remains of fresh-water shrimps 

 from their stomachs, and doubtless other animals in- 

 habiting the waters are from time to trme devoured. 



About the nesting habits of the Kingfisher mystery 

 has almost always hung. The ancients, for instance, 

 had a very absurd idea as to its nesting habits. They 



