142 SOME BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA 



desirable things, their photographs were exceedingly 

 difficult to procure. We found that they had nested 

 in a bank some half-mile up the stream, but that the 

 young birds had already flown. These Kingfishers 

 seemed to fish at most hours of the day, and would vary 

 their station according as it was high, or low tide. At 

 low tide, when the water was mostly out of the Salt 

 River, they would betake themselves to some rocks 

 that jutted out into the main river, and from these 

 rocks they made excursions into the air, gradually attain- 

 ing their ''pitch," and then hovering for a minute or two 

 at a time. On sighting their prey, they would dive 

 down into the water from a height of twenty or thirty 

 feet, often unsuccessfully, in which case they would 

 fly rapidly off and again hover a little distance away. 

 When hovering, the body is held almost vertically, the 

 long beak pointing downwards and the wings moving 

 rapidly. They seemed to prefer to fish in water of 

 about two feet or so in depth ; perhaps they could the 

 more easily see their prey in shallower water. When 

 they dived they would hit the water with a smack, being 

 momentarily immersed, and would then fly with the 

 fish held crosswise in the beak to the nearest con- 

 venient perching place, keeping close to the water as 

 they flew. I noticed that they always gave their victims 

 one sharp tap on the rock or stump to which they 

 happened to fly, in order to despatch it. The plumage 

 of the bird, as it appeared after coming out of the 

 water, glittered in the sun almost as brightly as the 

 silvery scales of the fish itself. 



Sometimes when one of these birds was hovering 

 in the air it would dart down towards the water, then 



