122 Birds op Pennsylvania. 



from place to place, always on being disturbed, and even scmetimes 

 when he is about to plunge into the ^|^r for a fish. But especially 

 is it heard at night w^hen the male birois returning to the nest with 

 food for his mate and young." — Gentry. Their eggs are deposited in 

 holes whicli they excavate in the sides of banks, usually about the 

 streams and ponds they frequent. On many occasions, I have discov- 

 ered their nests in high embankments along public roads, railroad 

 cuts and old quarries. The excavations vary greatly in depth, but 

 average about four or five feet; occasionally you find one straight, 

 commonly, however, they are directed to the right or left of the main 

 opening and terminate in quite a large cavity. The eggs (1.30 by 

 1.06 inches) are white and usually six in number, although I have in 

 several instances seen seven. The eggs, according to my observation, 

 are invariably deposited on the bare earth. Mr. Gentry, however, 

 tell us that he has " in many instances known them to be deposited 

 in a warm and cosy nest constructed of dried grasses and feathers." 

 Kingfishers feed almost entirely on fish. Their proficiency in catch- 

 ing small fish is such that they are in bad repute among the owners 

 and proprietors of trout and carp ponds. Two gentlemen of my ac- 

 quaintance were so greatly annoyed by the loss of gold-fish and trout, 

 which had been sustained from the regular visits of several pairs of 

 these birds, that they adopted the following means for their destruc- 

 tion. Stakes were driven down about the ponds in several places; 

 the tops of the stakes were sufficiently large to support steel- traps, 

 which were set, but not baited. The birds on visiting the ponds would 

 invariably fly to one of the stakes and alight. In less than one week 

 ten or twelve Kingfishers were in this way trapped and killed. A 

 friend of mine, some few years ago, informed me that he caught one 

 of these birds on a hook and line, while fishing in the Brandywine, 

 near Chadd's Ford. My informant said he had a live bait (minnow) 

 on his hook, and as he was winding up his line on the reel, he saw a 

 Kingfisher plunge into the w^ater at his bait, which it not only caught, 

 but at the same time hooked and entangled itself in the line so that 

 it could not escape. One daj'^ B. M. Everhart found a Kingfisher lying 

 on the bank of a small stream. On making an investigation, Mr. 

 Everhart ascertained that the bird was unable to fly, as its bill was 

 tightly clasped in the grasp of a large fresh-water mussel. I have 

 heard of two or three instances where Kingfishers have been captured 

 under similar circumstances, which would naturally lead one to sup- 

 pose that they feed to a limited degree on the flesh of these bivalves. 

 According to certain writers, this species is said to feed occasionally, 

 though rarely, on insects. Mr. E. A. Samuels states that he once shot 

 a Kingfisher which had just seized a mouse {Armcola). 



